The Ink Master
by midgetdanny
Summary: In a world where Loki won in New York and the Avengers were defeated follow the story of Shaun Hunter, an SAS soldier gone rogue, as he helps Loki hunt down the man he blames for the death of his family.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Shaun closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the alarm sounded, signalling that the back doors of the quinjet were lowering.

"You alright?" Rumlow asked from his right.

"Just getting in the zone." Shaun replied before pushing himself out of his seat. He reached over his shoulder and gave a tug on the sword that was hanging on his back to check that it was secure. He brought his hand up and closed it around the ring that hung around his neck. He tucked the ring under his bullet proof vest and moved towards the back of the jet, which was no open to the elements.

"Listen up," Rumlow was shouting to the team behind them "We believe this cell to be protecting Anthony Stark, aka Iron Man."

"We do not know the state of Mr Stark or of his armour, but we know that the rebels are well equipped." Shaun joined in "Our orders are to capture Stark and kill all of the rebels."

"Right now they don't know that we are here, but that won't last long. Our objective is to infiltrate the compound and secure Stark. There is a team surrounding the compound ready to engage hostiles when this goes loud." Rumlow explained.

"I've got point, Rumlow brings up the rear. The rest of you keep your eyes open and stay frosty." Shaun finished the briefing and turned back to the doorway. There were two ropes tied in knots, hanging from the roof. Shaun and Rumlow undid the knots and let the rope drop. They each reached out and grabbed hold of the line before stepping out of the quinjet into the night sky.

They reached the bottom of the rope and immediately stepped away. Rumlow swept his weapon over the rooftop, making sure that there were no enemies there and Shaun sprinted to the doorway leading into the factory where the rebels had set up base.

He pulled it open and peered inside to make sure that there was no one there as the next two members of their team landed on the rooftop. They both immediately moved to the doorway, one standing at the other side to Shaun and the other behind Shaun. The one behind him placed a hand on his shoulder to let him know that he was there.

When the last two men touched down they repeated the process and Rumlow fell in at the back of the column across from Shaun. He felt a tap on his shoulder and he knew that the men behind him were in position. He nodded to the man across from him, who reached out and opened the door.

Shaun was the first through, his eyes searching for anything that could pose as a threat. When he identified that the stairwell was clear he signalled to the men behind him and started to move down. At the bottom there was another doorway, this one with a glass window. Shaun could see the factory through the window. The doorway opened onto a metal walkway which surrounded the factory floor, which was where their intel suggested that the rebels were concentrated.

Shaun opened the door and peeked through. He signalled to Rumlow and together the two of them creeped out onto the walkway. From here they could see down below, where the rebels had set up camp. They had made makeshift tents with old sheets hanging between the left over equipment and it made it quite difficult to tell who was down there. The building hadn't had an electricity running to it since it had been abandoned years ago but it appeared that Stark had rigged up a generator to provide them with some dim lighting.

They could see people moving about down there but they were too high up to identify any body in particular. Rumlow raised his rifle and peered down the scope to try and find their target. Shaun didn't have a rifle but he had other ways of seeing long distances.

He blinked his eyes shut and when they opened again he could see in much greater detail, as though he was standing right in front of the people. There was a slight burning on his arm and he looked down to study it.

The tattoo was a tribal design with the snarling heads of 17 animals bursting out of the lines. The eagle's head tattoo was glowing and that was where the burning was coming from.

He diverted his gaze back to the camp down below. He took his time, studying every person down there to see if he could identify Stark.

"He must be in one of the tents." Rumlow commented. Shaun grunted in agreement "There's no way we'll be able to get him without being seen."

"You might not be able to." Shaun commented as he blinked his eyes, is vision returning to normal and the burning sensation disappearing "But I can. Get the team into position to cover me back up here."

"What are you going to do?"

"Take out the generator. Stark will go to fix it and I'll be waiting." He said.

"You'll be seen."

"Have you learnt nothing in the last year?" Shaun smirked. And with that he disappeared. He could feel a burning sensation in his arm again and even though he couldn't see it he knew that the chameleon tattoo was glowing.

He moved as quickly and as quietly as he could, intimately aware that any noise he made would echo throughout the warehouse due to the metal floor he was walking on. Eventually he reached the staircase at the end of the walkway and started to make his way down.

It was when he reached the bottom that he realised two things. The first was that he didn't know where the generator was and the second was that there was no way he was going to be able to walk through the people on the factory floor without someone bumping into him.

Problem two was the easiest to solve. He closed his eyes and the burning on his arm shifted. This time when he looked down he could see his arm again, and the tattoo. Now it was an octopus that was glowing, a mimic octopus to be precise. It meant that he could shapeshift, become whoever he wanted to be.

Now he looked like a small, balding man in his late 40's who had developed a bit of a pot belly. Shaun moved towards the camp, plucking a jacket off of a makeshift washing line as he did. He pulled it on to hide his tattoos, sword and his Kevlar vest. He shuffled through the crowd of people, pushing them aside, until he saw the generator hidden under one of the tents.

He smirked to himself and made his way over. There was no one guarding the generator, in fact he hadn't seen anything to indicate that there were any weapons here at all, not that that mattered to him. They were rebels and it was his job to take care of them.

He crouched behind the generator and allowed himself to become invisible again. He reached into one of the pockets on his belt and pulled out a localised EMP device. He placed it on the generator and armed it before moving away from the generator and waiting for it to detonate.

The detonation barely made any noise at all and left no noticeable marks on the generator but Shaun knew it had worked because the lights in the tent went out, leaving the room in complete darkness. Shaun pulled a set of night vision goggles out of one of the pockets on his trousers and put them on. Then it was just a matter of waiting for Stark to come to fix it.

It took five minutes for the man to get there, and when he did he immediately bent down and started studying the generator. Shaun quietly drew his sword from the scabbard on his back and stepped forwards, placing the sword across Stark's throat.

"Listen up, Stark." He muttered "You're going to leave this tent and make your way up the stairs to the gangway. If you don't comply we will kill everyone here. Do you understand?" At first Stark didn't do anything, he was probably planning an escape of some kind, but eventually he nodded his head.

"The package is coming to you." Shaun muttered into his earpiece so that Rumlow knew he had Stark.

Stark made his way through the crowd occasionally trying to stop to talk to someone but Shaun would poke him in the back with his sword and he'd start moving again. They reached the stairs without incident but it was when they were about halfway up that Stark made his move.

He must have figured that even though he couldn't see Shaun the only place he could be on the stairs was behind him. The man spun around and threw a punch but Shaun had been expecting it and he ducked, bringing his sword up and smacking the fist aside with the flat of the blade. Stark realised his mistake and, before Shaun could move, vaulted over the railings, landing on the factory floor.

He started shouting for the others, alerting them that Shaun was there. The camp burst into action and Shaun saw weapons start to appear from under machinery and clothes, until almost everyone was armed.

"Tell the other teams to start their attack. Stark's mine." Shaun said into the comm before he launched himself over the railing after the man, who was sprinting through the crowd towards the other end of the factory.

"He's going for his armour." Rumlow told him.

"Take his legs." Shaun decided. Rumlow mumbled a confirmation and a second later there was a gunshot and Shaun saw Stark tumble to the floor. Shaun was almost on top of him when a crowd of people stepped out, clearly trying to protect Stark from his invisible attacker.

Shaun allowed himself to become visible again and twirled his sword through the air casually. He grinned menacingly and saw a couple of men at the back of the group turn and run, clearly they knew who he was.

"A bit of help here." He muttered to Rumlow before charging forwards. The cheetah's head tattoo on his arm started to burn as he funnelled speed from it, allowing himself to become faster than just about any human on the planet.

He dropped to his knees and slid along the floor, going straight between the legs of one of the men and slicing his sword out sideways, severing the man's leg at the knee. The man dropped to the floor even as Shaun jumped to his feet and threw his sword into the air, catching it in a reverse grip and thrusting it backwards into the man's chest.

The other men stepped backwards, clearly shocked by the ease with which he had dispatched one of them. Then one of the men's heads exploded as Rumlow put a round straight through it. The body dropped to the floor and as it did Shaun saw the men start to waiver. He knew that it wouldn't take much now to route them.

He was just about to dart forwards and dispatch another, hopefully giving them the push that they needed to turn and run when the building was shaken by a series of explosions. Shaun kept his balance but the men he was fighting weren't so lucky, most of them fell over or stumbled.

He cast his eyes around the room and smirked as he saw what was happening. The team that had been surrounding the factory had blown holes in all four walls and now Shaun's teammates, as well some soldiers, were pouring into the factory.

He spotted the silver blur that was Quicksilver, moving at such high speeds that it was difficult to see anything other than a blur. There was a glint of silver through the smoke in front of one of the other holes and Shaun saw the Winter Soldier grab a rebel with his metal arm and hurl him across the room. ARES swooped in through the hole that he had blown and was taking rebels out with the repulsor technology that he had stolen from Tony Stark. The Scarlet Witch, however, was perhaps the most formidable of all of the newcomers. She marched through the cloud of dust and the rebels opened fire on her but she simply raised her hand and a field of scarlet energy appeared in front of her, disintegrating the bullets as they made contact. She waved her hand and one of the machines on the factory floor sped across the room and crushed them all.

Shaun watched as his opponents all turned and ran, clearly intimidated by the sheer power that had just entered the room.

"Rumlow, did you see where Stark went?" Shaun asked as he moved towards where the man had been shot.

"I was busy covering your ass." Rumlow replied "You're on your own." Shaun didn't reply except for a gentle groan to himself. He always hated having to do this, he wouldn't be able to get the stink out of his nostrils for weeks.

There was a burning sensation on his arm and he knew that the bloodhound tattoo was glowing. As soon as the burning started his sense of smell was amplified to an almost unbearable point. He could smell everything, the sweat and dirt on the rebels, their fear, and the excitement of the attackers. He could smell the metallic scent that clung to ARES and the cold that always hung around the Winter Soldier, the singed air that the Scarlet Witch created when she used her power.

He crouched next to the blood that had been spilled when Rumlow shot Stark and dipped his finger in it. He brought the finger to his nose and inhaled deeply. Tony Stark smelled of engine grease and motor oil and cheap cologne, all masked by the dirt and grime that clung to him after so long living in this factory.

He stood up and set off sprinting, following his nose. He made sure to take his time, not channelling his cheetah spirit for a few reasons, the first was that he didn't want to go too fast and miss something and the second, and perhaps most important, was that he still had trouble channelling more than one spirit at once, it made his tired and sluggish and he couldn't afford that at the minute.

Starks scent led him through a door into a dark staircase that led downwards.

"I've followed Stark to the basement." Shaun said over his comm "How copy?"

"This… Witch… do… engage… backup…" he recognised the voice, the Scarlet Witch had replied but the connection was weak and he couldn't hear the full message. He briefly considered waiting for backup but he didn't think that he would have any trouble with Stark and he couldn't afford to wait if they had an escape route down here.

"I did not copy. Repeat I did not copy. I will continue my pursuit. Send backup when available." Shaun replied before he took his earpiece out and started down the stairs, allowing his sense of smell of the night vison goggles to guide him through the darkness.

He reached the bottom of the staircase and as far as he could tell he was completely alone in the storeroom that he found himself in. There was no sign of Stark apart from the scent that Shaun had followed all the way down here. There was no way that Stark wasn't down here but the man was clearly hiding from him.

Shaun slowly made his way into the room, his sword held at the ready to defend at a second's notice. He made it halfway into the room when he found the first giveaway that Stark had been here, the makeshift repair station that looked like it had been used to repair his Iron Man armour. Except the armour was gone now.

Shaun allowed the bloodhound tattoo to stop burning and instead channelled the rabbit, enhancing his hearing. He stood still and cocked his head to the side, trying to listen for any indicator that would tell him where his prey was hiding.

He heard something just behind him and dived to the side just in time as Stark's repulsors fired and left a scorch mark on the wall right where Shaun's head would have been. Now that Shaun knew where his quarrel was he knew that he had him. He could see him in his night vision goggles and he wasn't going to lose him. He allowed his hearing to return to normal as he once more made himself invisible to the human eye.

He sneaked around the room until he was standing behind Stark, who was trying to find him in the darkness. Shaun swung his sword but it seemed that the man had known where he was all along and he ducked, spinning around as he did. Shaun reversed the arc of his blade and brought it down just in time to deflect the repulsor blast that Stark fired at him.

He silently thanked the person who had given him his sword and blessed it so that it would be almost indestructible. As his sword moved past the two of them and Stark's blast struck the wall Shaun kicked the man in the chest, sending him backwards. The bear tattoo on his arm started to glow and he hurled his sword through the air with all of the strength of a bear as Stark pushed himself to his feet.

The sword buried itself in the man's shoulder with enough force to pin him to the wall behind him. Shaun walked up to his wounded foe slowly as Stark raised his hand and fired a repulsor blast but Shaun's viper tattoo meant that his reflexes were too quick and he stepped out of the way almost effortlessly. He held his hand out and the magnet in his gloved called his sword back to his hand. Stark fired another repulsor blast but Shaun deflected it casually as though it was nothing more than an annoyance.

He watched as the arc reactor in Stark's chest started to glow and he stopped moving and crouched down, ready to jump out of the way. The beam fired and he sidestepped it gracefully only to find that Stark had fired his hand repulsors too. His reflexes allowed him to see the attack coming long before it reached him but he knew that he didn't have the time to do anything to stop it.

He braced himself for the painful impact and closed his eyes, waiting for the blast to hit. He was surprised then, when he never felt the impact.

He opened his eyes almost shyly and was surprised to see that the white energy blast of Stark's repulsors was contained in a scarlet field of energy.

"I told you to wait." A voice sounded behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see the Scarlet Witch standing there, her hands outstretched and her face showing the strain of holding the attack at bay.

"You know how I feel about taking orders." Shaun replied with a smirk as he stepped out of the way of the attack and the Witch released it, allowing it to crash into the wall "The comm wasn't working."

"Well it's a good job I was here." She replied. They both heard the tell-tale sign of Stark's repulsors firing up and reacted at the same time. Shaun hurled his sword through the air, pinning Stark's right arm to the wall at the same time that the Scarlet Witch launched a ball of scarlet energy that pinned his left arm.

"What would I do without you?" Shaun asked sarcastically "What's it like upstairs?"

"The others are just mopping up. No injuries."

"You killed th…" Stark started but the Witch launched another ball of energy that pinned his jaw closed.

"Shall we get him out of here?" Shaun asked with a smirk as he moved to stand over his vanquished foe.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Shaun watched the procession of HYDRA guards lead Stark from the quinjet and into the bowels of the prison, where he would probably spend the rest of his life. Wanda and Pietro, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, were standing next to him, watching with satisfied smirks on their faces. They hated Tony Stark as much as Shaun did, he had taken something dear from all of them and now they had their revenge, even if it wasn't in the form that they had expected.

Shaun slammed his fist into the button next to the exit and the ramp started to close. He watched Stark's retreating back for as long as he could until the ramp cut off the view.

"We should have a party." He declared as he turned around to face the rest of the quinjet's occupants. The whole team was there, Pietro, Wanda, Brock Rumlow and the Winter Soldier. ARES had flown ahead to repair some of the damage that he had taken during the fight.

"Why?" Rumlow asked seriously.

"Because we," he gestured to himself and the twins "have finally got justice for the people we lost." He told them.

"And you want to get drunk." Pietro guessed.

"And I want to get absolutely shit-faced." Shaun agreed. His hand came up to his neck and closed around the ring that was held there.

Shaun walked out of his bedroom and into the communal area of the tower that Loki had assigned as living quarters to his troops. The penthouse floor was entirely off limits except to Shaun and the team unless they invited people themselves, and today they had invited a lot of people.

The room was absolutely packed and their guests were spilling out into the rooftop garden. Shaun spotted one of Rumlow's old STRIKE friends in the corner acting as DJ for the night. There was a bar across one wall that was usually unmanned but today they had recruited some of the staff from downstairs to serve their guests.

Pietro and Wanda were sitting on one of the sofas, talking and laughing. As Shaun watched Pietro made his way down a line of what must have been about 20 shots. When he finished he still looked stone cold sober, one of the advantages of having a metabolism that burned as fast as his did, Shaun supposed.

Rumlow was leaning against the bar, talking to a woman that Shaun thought worked in the administration department downstairs. He smirked and waved over one of the bartenders. They brought him a glass of whiskey and he took it off of them before making his way outside, where he could see someone who he had never expected to see at a party.

ARES was standing at the edge of the garden, looking out over the city. Shaun moved to stand next to him.

He used to love the New York skyline before Loki came, when there were towers and lights, and amazing sights. But now there were only three towers left standing. Theirs, Stark Tower, which Loki had claimed as his own as a monument to his victory, and the Prison Tower, tall and foreboding in the New York Bay.

Staten Island had been completely cleared for Loki's construction project, although no one knew what it was that he was constructing. The rest of the city was filled with destroyed buildings, some hiding rebellion cells that had yet to be tracked down and eliminated, others hiding civilians who didn't want to be drafted into working at the construction site. Then there were the buildings that had been repurposed as HYDRA outposts, which you could tell apart from the others because they were the only ones that had been repaired after the war.

"Why do you celebrate?" ARES asked after a moment's silence.

"What?" Shaun asked, caught off guard by the question.

"You celebrate the death of other humans. Why?"

"Because we won. A victory should always be celebrated. It keeps the moral high."

"I don't understand. Loki claims to want to bring peace, but he kills and destroys to get it. And you all celebrate when he does."

"Si vis pacem, para bellum." Shaun quoted.

"If you want peace, prepare for war." ARES translated.

"Exactly. Sometimes the only way to bring peace is to crush your opponents into submission."

"I think I understand." ARES told him. Shaun watched as the AI robot powered up the thrusters in his feet and lifted himself into the air. He glided over the railing and dropped down the side of the building and out of sight.

Shaun took one more look over the city and felt a pang of loss and maybe a little guilt at the now rather desolate landscape. Whereas before New York had been a monument to the glory of the west but now it was just a monument to the glory of Loki.

He turned away from the view and walked back into the room. He leaned on the bar and downed his drink, ordering another from the bartender as he did. With his new drink in hand he turned around and walked over to the sofas where Pietro and Wanda were sitting.

He dropped down next to Wanda and smiled at the duo.

"How does it feel?" he asked.

"How does what feel?" Pietro replied.

"To know that Tony Stark will finally face justice for his crimes."

"Everyone's plan is to not kill him." Pietro sounded quite annoyed "I want him dead."

"I've got a feeling that what's coming to him is worse than death."

"You never told us why you hate him." Wanda cut in before Pietro could get really worked up.

"That is a long story." Shaun waved the bartender over and sent them away to bring him a bottle of whiskey "I was engaged once, many years ago, but Tony Stark took that from me." His hand closed around the ring that still hung around his neck.

Flashback

Shaun smiled at the look on her face as he drove her deep through the jungle. He knew the road like the back of his hand, he had travelled it many times all those months ago when he had been stranded here.

They reached the end of the road and Shaun pulled up and shut down the engine.

"We have to go on foot from here." They climbed out of the jeep and Shaun led the way through the undergrowth, his hand clasped firmly around hers. He refused to let her go, it was easy to get lost in the jungle for those who didn't know it, and it was a dangerous place to even those who did.

They'd been walking for about 10 minutes when Shaun stopped at the bottom of a cliff face. He turned to face her, taking both of her hands in his.

"Do you trust me, Rose?" she nodded once and he smiled broadly "Then close your eyes." She did as he told her and his smile grew even wider. He released one of her hands and gently tugged her forwards, towards the cliff face.

His hand touched the cliff and sunk right through it, just as he had expected. He stepped forwards, straight through the illusion of the cliff face, and pulled Rose behind him.

When they were standing on the other side he let go of her hand and told her that she could open her eyes. They were standing in a huge cavern, hidden under the mountain by the magic of the Unduli tribe.

Shaun always loved to stand at the entrance and just watch the cavern. The ceiling was about 5 stories high and it was as large as 7 football fields, if not more. To the left there was a waterfall pouring through an underground stream into a large lake but that was not where Shaun's eyes drifted.

His eyes found the village, as they always did. There was thirty huts, all made from a mix of wood, stone and mud, built in a haphazard fashion. Some of them were raised on stilts, some of them dug into ditches. Each hut was different and they all reflected the personality of the family that lived there.

Hanging above the doorway of each hut was a strange green stone, which glowed and cast away the darkness of the cavern, replacing it with a strangely comforting green light. The village was built next to the lake near to the cavern wall. The largest hut was built against the wall and Shaun knew that this was the villagers' most sacred place. Only the shaman and the warriors were allowed in the hut, and the punishment for entering otherwise was death.

Shaun was snapped from his musings as something tackled his legs, almost making him lose his balance. He looked down and smiled as he saw the top of one of the village children's head. He braced himself as the other children charged at him, each of them colliding with his legs and staggering him backwards until eventually he couldn't move from all the children clinging to him and he fell over.

He laughed as the children piled on him and he pulled them off and threw them around, playing with them as they clearly wanted. He could hear Rose laughing above him and that brought a smile to his face.

Eventually the children got off of him and sprinted down the path back to the village, probably to tell the others that he was there, not that the sentries wouldn't have already alerted them to his arrival. He pushed himself to his feet and smiled at Rose, who was still smiling at him.

He dusted off his trousers before stepping forwards and wrapping his arms around her waist, picking her up and spinning her around. They stopped spinning and he leaned forwards and kissed her gently, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the sensation of having her soft lips against his.

He pulled away and studied her face, trying to memorise everything about her, just another memory that he never wanted to lose; another moment that he never wanted to end. But, inevitably, it did, as all such moments must.

"Shaun of the Hunt, bienvenue chez nous." Someone called. Shaun released Rose and turned to watch as his mentor, Afolabi, came up the pathway from the village.

"Shaun of the Hunt?" Rose asked.

"The Unduli don't have surnames, to them Hunter is a title, of the Hunt." He explained before turning back to Afolabi. He placed his hand on his forehead in the traditional Unduli greeting for a shaman, which is what Afolabi was. Afolabi repeated the action as tradition dictated and then the two stepped forwards and embraced each other.

They pulled apart and Shaun started to speak in rapid French, telling Afolabi about Rose before he finally turned to Rose.

"Rose, this is Afolabi. He is the village shaman and my mentor. Afolabi, elle s'appelle Rose, ma fiancée."

"It's a pleasure, mademoiselle." Afolabi greeted her. His English wasn't perfect, but he always liked to talk it to Shaun so that he could practice.

"Likewise." She replied. Shaun could tell that she was still a little nervous, although he wasn't sure why.

The three of them walked down the path to the village and Afolabi told Shaun what had been happening since he left and the two of them told Rose about the village and their traditions. They stepped into the village proper and Shaun smiled. The smell was so familiar, sweat, fire and mud, and the air tasted of burning wood, which he hadn't realised that he missed. The kids were running through the streets, attacking each other with sticks and stones and pretending to be animals.

Outside the large hut three boys, almost adults, knelt in front of one of the warriors, who was preparing them to take their spirits. The warrior saw him and placed his right hand across his throat, the greeting of two warriors to each other. Shaun copied the motion and they continued walking through the streets.

They kept talking, sometimes telling Rose random things, sometimes answering questions that she asked. Shaun kept glancing to her, smiling at the look of pure wonder that covered her face. She was completely entranced by the little village. She'd stopped to study the carvings on a stone outside someone's hut and they explained how the village's warriors would place these stones with their animal spirits carved on outside the huts of those families without warriors in them to offer protection.

And as much as Shaun wanted this moment to last forever, who knew that it, much like their kiss earlier, couldn't. They had just stopped to talk to a young boy who was practicing fighting using a wooden stick as a spear, with Shaun giving him some pointers, when a sound that all of the villagers feared was heard.

The warriors who were posted to watch the entrance to the cavern for any threats all had the spirit of the eagle. And they all spent a lot of time learning to channel their spirit into their voice to alert the village to threats.

As the eagle's screech echoed off of the walls of the cavern the entire village froze. The stillness didn't last for long, however, as everybody burst into action. The villagers, those who weren't warriors, dived into the nearest huts, dragging the children with them. Meanwhile the warriors were all grabbing their weapons and rushing up the path towards the hidden entrance to the cave.

Shaun, however, didn't move. He was poorly armed and unwilling to leave Rose alone if there was a threat outside. He carried with him only a small knife, he hadn't expected that he would need to fight more than a couple of curious predators.

"What's going on?" Rose asked, her eyes betraying her fear as she watched the anxious nature with which everyone moved.

"We're under attack." Shaun stated bluntly.

"Go, Shaun of the Hunt, the warriors need Imamu." Shaun looked at Rose and she nodded once "Take my sword. Je protégerai sa fiancée." Afolabi unhooked his sword belt and handed it to Shaun, who nodded his thanks and set off sprinting up the hill to join the other warriors, fastening his sword around his waist as he did.

He pushed his way through to the front of the line. The warriors behind him were bearing spears and swords, axes and clubs. There were archers and slingers positioned in the village and a line of men with shields stood halfway down the path.

As he stood at the front the warriors all started chanting his name: "Imamu, Imamu, Imamu." The name meant spiritual leader, and that was what Shaun was to them, a messenger of their God. The chanting died down and was replaced by the roars of animals as the warriors all channelled their single animal spirit. Shaun joined in, his cheetah's roar louder than the others.

The first of their enemies came through the illusion and was immediately dropped by an arrow. Before he fell Shaun had the time to notice that the man was wielding a rifle, much more high-tech than anything that the Unduli possessed.

The illusion shimmered as this time a group of men came through. They were felled by a volley of arrows but for each one that fell two more stepped into the cavern. Shaun raised his sword in the air and charged forwards, the other warriors joining him with a terrible roar.

Flashback ends

"I found out later that Stark Industries had supplied the local rebels with the weapons that they used to slaughter the Unduli tribe and my wife." Shaun finished "I was dishonourably discharged from the army for hunting down the rebels and slaughtering them all."

Neither of the twins said anything, there wasn't particularly anything to be said after hearing a story like that.

"Tony Stark hurt us all in the same way. He tore us away from everything that we loved. And now, he will spend the rest of his life regretting everything that he did to us." Shaun told them. He raised his glass in a toast and the other two joined him, silently saluting their victory over Stark.

They sat in silence for a while longer, simply enjoying each other's company until a blonde woman that Shaun was certain worked in the kitchen downstairs came and sat next to them.

"Can we help you?" Pietro asked. Shaun was quite surprised at Pietro's hostility, although perhaps he shouldn't have been considering what they'd just been talking about.

"I just wanted…" she was slurring her words and Shaun was certain that she was drunk "to see your…" she pawed at her right arm and struggled to find the word "tattoos." She said eventually, looking very pleased with herself. Shaun looked at Pietro and Wanda, both of them shook their heads but Shaun knew that the only way he was going to get the woman to leave was to show her the tattoos.

He shrugged the leather jacket off and rolled up the right sleeve on his shirt. The tattoos looked almost lifelike, and every time he saw them he felt the animal spirits inside him stir. The woman smiled and leaned over, placing her hand on his arm and running a finger along the lines that connected all of the animal heads.

Now that he had shown her the tattoos he hoped that she would leave but she seemed intent to sit and stare at his tattoos. An evil grin formed on Shaun's face as he thought of a way to scare her off.

The octopus tattoo on his arm meant that he could change his shape to that of other humans but it also meant that he could, theoretically, take the shape of any of his spirit animals as well. At the moment he'd not managed to complete a full transformation but he had become quite competent at partial transformations.

He allowed his power to rise through his body, calling the octopus spirit and allowing it to change his form. He smiled as his arm changed shape, becoming a wriggling octopus tentacle. The woman jumped backwards and yelped as she did, her hands covered in octopus slime. Shaun laughed as his arm returned to normal, and Wanda and Pietro joined in as the woman ran away to the public bathroom.

"Those tattoos are amazing." Wanda said as she leaned forwards to get a better look at them.

"They aren't really tattoos." He explained. He ran his arm along one of the lines "These are signs of a warrior of the Unduli tribe. All of the boys get them when they become a warrior." Next he placed his hand on the circle on the back of his right hand "This is a symbol of the never ending journey of the spirit." Next he tapped one of the animal heads "These are manifestations of the spirits of the animals that are contained within me."

"So the animals actually looked like that?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. Their likeness was created by the ink that lives in me."

"So you can make yourself other tattoos?" she asked. Shaun didn't say anything in response, instead he rolled up his left sleeve and held out his hand to show her as an image that looked remarkably like Tony Stark with crosses in his eyes, clearly dead. They all laughed and Shaun allowed the ink to fade back into his arm until his skin was completely bare.

"I always wanted a tattoo." Wanda said wistfully "But we never had the chance before Loki came, and now tattoo artists aren't on his list of acceptable pass times."

"I could give you one." Shaun said innocently as he leaned backwards.

"You can do tattoos?" Wanda asked.

"Well not exactly. I could never draw them with a pen." He held his hand out to her "May I?" she placed her hand in his and he placed his other hand on the top of it. After a couple of seconds he lifted his top hand away and there was a black dot on the back of her hand. Shaun covered her hand again and when he lifted it away the dot was gone.

"You tell me what you want and I can give it to you." He paused and cocked his head to the side "That could come across totally wrong." She laughed and Pietro seemed to get annoyed with them so he got up and walked to the bar.

"When I first got my powers and they started calling me the Scarlet Witch I hated it. I hated everything about it, everything that the name stood for, the fear that it inspired in everyone who heard it. But now I've started to understand that their fear isn't something I can control. But I can control my fear of them, I can control how I feel about my powers."

"And you want something to show that?" Shaun guessed. She nodded once "How about a pentagram? On the wrist?" he tapped the underside of his wrist to indicate where he would put it. As he pulled his finger away he smiled at the pentagram that now adorned is wrist. The pentagram faded away and he looked at her.

"I like it." Her hand was still resting in his from when he took it earlier and he gently twisted it over so that her palm was face up. He placed his hand over her wrist for a couple of seconds and as he pulled it away there was a pentagram there in the exact spot where there had been one on his wrist.

He leaned backwards, a smug smile on his face showing that he was pleased with his work, not that it was a complicated piece. But he felt something else too, something that he couldn't quite place, something that felt good.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Full house." Rumlow crowed as he threw his cards onto the table "Hand it over."

"Not so fast. Four of a kind." Shaun replied as he placed his own cards on the table "Show me the money."

"Damn you."

"You're welcome." He replied sarcastically. He swept the money off of the table and counted it into his wallet.

"Are you two done yet?" he looked over his shoulder to see Wanda approaching them with a drink in her hand.

"I was going to suggest strip poker." Shaun said with a smirk that told her he was joking "You interested?" she laughed and he felt a warm feeling swell inside of him, the same warm feeling that he always felt when she laughed.

"Maybe some other time." She tried to keep a straight face but Shaun could see the corners of her lip turning up and he knew that she was forcing herself not to smile.

She took a seat across from him and Rumlow got up and moved towards the bar to make himself a drink.

"It's not even dinner time, Brock. Are you really drinking already?" Shaun called out as the man walked away.

"I'll drink when I wanna drink, Hunter?" he replied sharply "You having one?"

"It's not even dinner time, Brock." Shaun replied "Doesn't that ring a bell to you?" Brock just scoffed and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the shelf.

Shaun leaned back and looked around the room. It wasn't often that they were all together like this but at the moment all 6 of them were in the common area in the tower, the same place where they had held the party the night before.

Pietro was curled up in a chair with a mug of coffee. It turns out that even someone with a metabolism as fast as his could still get hungover. Ares was polishing his arm, which looked really weird, in a corner and the Winter soldier was field stripping an assault rifle for no reason other than he could. Shaun had slept long enough that when he had woken he had barely had a hangover and Wanda hadn't drank enough to get drunk. It looked like Brock was dealing with his own hangover by drinking some more, which Shaun knew from experience was an effective remedy.

"How you feeling?" he asked Wanda as he picked up his mug and drained the dregs from the bottom.

"Like I regret letting my brother drink so much." Shaun looked over his shoulder at Pietro and smirked.

"He's a big boy now, he can look after himself."

"That's almost exactly what he said when I tried to cut him off." Shaun laughed and he saw a small smile creep onto her face. He opened his mouth to ask he something but the words were cut short as the elevator door opened.

A man wearing a fancy three piece suit stepped out and Shaun groaned. He was the Head of the Commission, the body in charge of issuing missions to the Dark Unit, which was what their little team was called. Shaun hated when he visited in person, usually they received their missions online, the Commission only ever visited in person when something serious was going on.

"Major, front and centre." The man called out. Shaun rolled his eyes at Wanda before he pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the man, Mr Jones, placing his mug on the bar as he went.

"You do realise I'm not a major anymore, sir?"

"You're in charge here aren't you?"

"Now that depends. If you're here to reward us I'm in charge. If not, I'd suggest you talk to Ares."

"There are 2 new team members waiting for you downstairs. I'm here to observe a training simulation to assess whether they are ready for both combat and to be a part of this team."

"No offense, sir, but do you realise how much we had to train together before we were ready to do a sim?"

"Well you don't have a choice. This comes right from the top. Gear up and get down there." Jones said before turning and stepping back into the elevator.

Shaun sighed as the lift doors closed and turned to face the room. He grabbed hold of the ring hanging around his neck and called out to get everyone's attention.

"The Commission sent us over two new team members. We're to run a sim with them right now with Mr Jones watching." He told them.

"Who have they sent?" Rumlow asked. He was now leaning against the bar and taking sips from his glass of whiskey.

"He didn't say. I tried to tell him that we needed time to work together first but he was having none of it. So gear up and get down to the sim room." Shaun walked across the room towards the corridor that led to their rooms "And Wanda, see if you can do something about Pietro's hangover."

Shaun pushed his door open and walked straight through the room, not paying any attention to anything except the open door into his walk in wardrobe. His battle gear was the closest to the door and he pulled it on over his current clothing. His sword was attached to the back of his bulletproof vest and there was a pistol belt attached to the bottom of the vest. He stripped his trousers off and pulled on a pair of cargo trousers instead.

He rushed out of the room to find the others waiting for him in the common area.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. There was a chorus of grunts and yeses from the assemble team and they all forced themselves into the lift. The lift was big enough to hold them all comfortably and the Soldier pushed the button for the sim level.

The doors pinged open and they all filed out to find three people waiting for them outside the door to the room. Shaun recognised two of them right away. The first was Mr Jones, no surprises there. It was the second that Shaun was surprised to see.

Agent Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye was standing to the left of the Head of the Commission and the man didn't seem to care that there was an Agent of SHIELD, one of SHIELD's most dangerous agents, standing right next to him.

"Ah, Major, agents, I'm glad you're here." Jones started.

"Well you didn't give us much of a choice did you?"

"No I didn't. Allow me to introduce you to your new teammates." Shaun looked around and could see that all of his teammates, other than Ares and the Soldier, who never showed any emotion, were pretty upset with Hawkeye joining the team. He could almost feel the hatred radiating off of Wanda.

"This is…" Jones started but Pietro cut him off.

"Hawkeye. What makes you think we want him?"

"Oh, I'm sure you don't want him. But like you said earlier, you don't have a choice."

"Wanda, how do you feel like proving that we don't have a choice?" Wanda smirked viciously and Shaun felt afraid, not for himself, but for the three men stood across from him.

A scarlet orb shot straight through the air and crashed into the wall right next to Hawkeye's head.

Shaun stepped forwards so that he was standing toe to toe with Jones.

"If we chose not to have him on this team you wouldn't have a say in the matter." He looked over his shoulder at the others, all of whom were glaring at the three men still "This is the deal. Before we even go into the sim we get to veto both candidates."

"And what happens in the veto process?" Jones asked. Despite having Shaun all up in his face he didn't seem intimidated.

"We ask some questions, they answer the questions, nothing major." He said as he took a step back to join the team "Oh, and Wanda gets to rummage in their heads for a while."

"No!" that was the first time that the final guy, the one that they didn't know, spoke up "No way! She's not getting in my head!"

"You want to join the Unit?" Shaun asked him. He nodded "Then it's non-negotiable. To be able to work as a team we have to know that we can trust you."

"I don't want her inside my head." He protested. Shaun stepped to the side and pointed at the elevator. The others stepped out of the way to give a clear path.

"There's the door. Don't let it hit you on the way out." He stared the man down until eventually Jones grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him away so that they could talk in private.

Whilst they were gone Shaun turned his head to study Hawkeye, who had barely moved a muscle since they had first stepped off of the elevator, even when Wanda had attacked him. His eyes were blank, there was no emotion in them at all and Shaun found that quite disturbing.

He snapped out of his eeriness when Jones and the other guy came back to stand in front of them.

"Fine, she can go through my mind." The guy said, although he sounded like he really didn't want to.

"Excellent." The team closed ranks and all of them looked a lot more at ease.

"Let's start with the easy stuff: what's your name?"

"Jordan Wayne."

"Nice to meet you." Shaun muttered "Now to you, Mr Jones."

"What's wrong with him?" Wanda asked pointing at Hawkeye.

"Nothing." Jones replied "He's been equipped with the newest tech, straight out of the labs downstairs. A mind control chip based on the technology found in the Master's sceptre. He's currently programmed to do as I bid but if I give you this" he held up what looked like a mobile phone "You can program him to do whatever you say."

"Then give it here." He held out his hand but Jones put the device away

"Not until you accept him onto the team."

"Wanda, check out Hawkeye before we move on. I want to make sure the device is working." She walked over to the man and placed her hand near his ear. Shaun watched as a scarlet mist spread up her finger and into his ear.

"He seems loyal." She was upset, Shaun could just tell, as though he being sad affected him in some weird way "But I still don't like it."

"Neither do I but he could be useful. And if he screws up we will kill him." He said the last bit to Jones, who nodded.

"So, Jordan, what powers do you have?" Brock asked the man, who still seemed kind of nervous.

"They're mostly heat based. I can superheat my body to temperatures hot enough to create flame. And I heal really quickly."

"You got the extremis program to work?" Shaun asked Jones.

"Jordan was their first, most promising recruit."

"You volunteered?" Pietro asked.

"I was injured in Afghanistan. Got a leg blow off. Extremis fixed it." He shook has leg as if to emphasise his point.

"Afghanistan? What unit were you with?" Brock asked.

"1st Battalion, 1st Marines."

"A squadron, 22 SAS." Shaun told him.

"SEAL Team 1." Brock told them. The three of them all shared a bonding moment before Shaun turned to the others.

"Anyone got any more questions?" He asked, looking over his shoulders at the rest of the team. None of them seemed to have any so he nodded to Wanda. She walked forwards and stopped next to Jordan, sending the scarlet mist into her ear.

She walked back over to stand next to Shaun, nodding to him on the way.

"It looks like they're both good. Although I'm definitely putting them on probation."

"Let's go run a sim." Brock commented lightly. Shaun nodded and the team all followed him as he stepped through the doorway into the large, empty room.

"Alright, listen up." Shaun stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face the team "We're going to be running a mid-level sim. The goal is to escort an engineer through a facility and protect him whilst he plants a bomb. We will be facing overwhelming numbers of well-armed, well trained opponents."

"What's the play?" Brock asked as he checked his weapon and his gear.

"Witch, stay close to the hostage, play the defensive game. Crossbones, Hawkeye, stay with the Witch, provide over watch from there." The three of them nodded once "Crossbones, keep an eye on him."

"Without a doubt."

"Ares, keep in the air, call out incoming hostiles and engage any air support." The robot didn't reply but Shaun knew that he would obey "Quicksilver, take out any hostiles attempting to engage at a distance or with heavy weaponry. Soldier, you and me are going to stick to close quarters, take out anyone who gets too close to the principle."

"What about me?" Jordan asked.

"You stick with me. I want to keep an eye on you." Shaun looked at each of them in turn "Everyone know what they're doing?" everyone nodded.

"Run battle simulation level 5. Escort mission scenario 3." The room shimmered as the panels around the room generated a random environment for them to fight in. They were standing at the edge of a forest with an expanse grass between them and a fence line blocking them from the power plant they were supposed to infiltrate. Another person appeared in front of the group, a computer program to simulate the engineer they were supposed to be escorting.

"Everybody knows your jobs. Let's get on with it." Shaun told them "Hold positions here. Me and Jordan will go ahead and cut the wire. We'll signal you when the coast is clear." With those words Shaun and Jordan set off at a sprint across the grass, hoping that they wouldn't be spotted by any of the guards that they could see patrolling the fence line.

"Crossbones, provide cover." Shaun ordered when he saw one of the guards spot them. A second later the guard dropped to the floor without a sign. Shaun and Jordan slid to a halt in front of the fence and Shaun reached up to draw his sword to cut the wire.

"Wait. I can do it." Jordan told him. Shaun hesitated for a second before nodding. He watched as Shaun's hands started to glow a red colour. He placed them on the wire and they melted right through it like a knife cutting through butter.

Shaun turned so that he was facing the trees and waved to let the others know that they could come through the fence. He and Jordan stepped through the gate and moved into cover as they waited for the rest of the team to arrive.

"Lead the way." Shaun indicated to the engineer, who didn't say anything. His programming didn't allow him to speak much more than necessary commands. The engineer started moving through the compound and the others followed him. The witch was walking right next to him with Hawkeye and Crossbones flanking her. Shaun and the Soldier were right behind them with Jordan to Shaun's rear. Finally there was Ares, hovering along behind them, ready to take out any air support.

They reached a doorway with a sign next to it labelled reactor and Shaun nodded to the Witch. She grabbed the engineer to stop him from opening the door as Shaun and the Soldier stepped up to the door and Crossbones and Hawkeye turned so that they were covering behind them.

Jordan moved to stand behind Shaun and placed a hand on his shoulder. He tapped his hand once and Shaun knew that he was ready. He nodded once and both he and the soldier yanked the doors open at the same time, clearing the corridor.

"We'll lead. You guys bring up the rear. Ares, Quicksilver, stay hidden out here. Keep our escape route clear. I have a feeling this isn't going to stay quiet for long." Shaun told him. The others nodded and they made their way down the corridor, following the signs for the reactor.

They were about halfway there when one of the doors opened and four guards stepped out. Shaun's arm started burning and he used the cheetah's speed to close the gap between them before they had even realised that the team was there. He sucker punched one of the guards before dropping down and spinning around on the floor with a leg extended. Two of them were tripped up but the final one jumped over his leg. He came up hard and punched him on the jaw with the strength of a bear, sending him sailing through the air.

Shaun kneed the next man in the head as he pushed himself off of the floor and then spun around the face the final guard, only to find him standing there with a pistol levelled at his head. Shaun took a deep breath and prepared himself to die. He pulled the trigger just as there was a shot from behind him and the man fell backwards just as the gun went off. Shaun saw Crossbones standing behind the Witch with his rifle raised.

"I told you it was going to get noisy. We need to hurry up." Shaun ordered "They'll be looking for us now."

They made much quicker progress down the corridor than they had been before. They all knew that their best hope was to get the engineer to the reactor as soon as possible. At least from there they could defend him better.

A klaxon was sounding all around them, which meant that the guards were definitely aware that there was an intruder. They stopped in front of the door to the reactor and the engineer set to work hacking the key pad to get them through the door.

The others formed a circle around him as he worked and the Witch held her hand in the air, creating a shimmering scarlet force field to protect them from any attacks. They'd been there for about a minute when two men appeared at the end of the corridor.

Crossbones opened fire and took one of them out straight away but the other ducked back around the corner.

"Soldier, go and get him before he calls for backup." The soldier nodded and set off at a sprint down the corridor. Shaun reached over his shoulder and drew his sword, twirling it once through the air as he waited. They all watched as the guard was thrown from behind the corner and into the wall and then the soldier stalked after him.

"Reinforcements incoming." The Soldier called to them in Russian.

"Understood." Shaun replied in the same language before flipping to English "He wasn't quick enough. They're on their way." No one replied but each of them adjusted themselves so that they were in a better position to fight.

The Soldier stopped at the end of the corridor just outside of the force field that the Witch was still maintaining. They were standing in a crossroad, with three possible ways that enemies could come at them and the fourth way leading into the reactor.

The Soldier covered the way straight ahead and Shaun stepped to cover the right. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Jordan had moved to cover the left path. Crossbones and Hawkeye had stepped forwards so that they were in front of the Witch, who had stepped backwards so that she was right in front of the engineer, and still maintaining the force field with one hand.

A group of guards came around the corner and Shaun reached up and wrapped his hand around the ring hanging at his neck. He waited for the guards to approach him but instead they formed a firing line at the end of the corridor.

"Witch, a little cover please." He called out. Just as the line opened fire a shimmering force field expanded to cover the corridor in front of him "Cover charge." The Witch clearly understood what he meant, it was one of the things they had trained to do.

The force field started moving towards the group at a rapid pace and Shaun set off sprinting behind it, making sure not to stray beyond it. All of their bullets disintegrated in the shield before they hit him and it didn't take long for the shield to envelop the guards, at which point it disappeared and Shaun was upon them before they even had chance to react.

He lashed out with the strength of a bear and sent the first man flying. As he drove deeper into the group he realised that there were far more of them than he realised, simply hiding around the corner where he couldn't see them. He silently cursed to himself but he didn't slow down. His sword flashed through the air and he moved fluidly through the crowd of people. His powers changed as fluidly as his body moved, changing from speed to strength and back again as and when he needed it to.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried there was no way he was going to stop that many guards from slipping past him so it wasn't surprising that he could hear the sounds of gunshots coming from the reactor room as Rumlow, and quite probably Hawkeye, tried to stop the enemies from getting down the corridor.

He ducked under a punch and thrust his sword straight up through the attacker's stomach. He was just about to pull it out when he felt pain erupt in his shoulder. He fell to the floor panting and praying that someone noticed and came to his rescue because there was no way he was going to survive in the middle of a large group of enemies when he was wounded.

"Quicksilver." He heard someone call through the earpiece "Ink is down. We need you in here now." There was no response but a few seconds later he felt someone grab him by the arms and then drag him down the corridor at break neck speeds, depositing him behind Hawkeye, Jordan and the Soldier, all of whom had closed ranks around him.

"Where are you hurt?" Crossbones asked. He was the only one on the team who was trained as a medic, which meant that in battle he was the only one who could patch them up, not that Shaun usually needed patching up.

"My shoulder." Crossbones nodded and pulled Shaun's vest off so that he could get to the wound. Whilst Crossbones was working his way through Shaun's clothing Shaun took the time to observe the battlefield.

The engineer had gotten through the door and was busy planting his charges in the reactor. Hawkeye was knelt in the middle of the junction taking out anyone that he could. Quicksilver, the Soldier and Jordan were engaging in close combat, taking out as many people as they could. Shaun noticed that the force field was no longer up and looked around but he couldn't see any sign of the Scarlet Witch anywhere.

"There's nothing there." Shaun snapped out of his contemplation and looked Crossbones right in the eye.

"What do you mean there's nothing there? I was stabbed in the shoulder. How can you miss it?"

"There's nothing wrong with you. Look for yourself." Shaun looked down at his now bare chest and his jaw dropped.

Crossbones was right. His shoulder was completely wound free. There was a scar from a previous wound he got a couple of years ago but no bleeding wound, nothing that should be causing him this much pain.

"It's weird though." Crossbones commented as he helped Shaun put his bullet proof vest back on.

"What's weir…" he started to ask but was cut off as some me broke past the fighting. Crossbones snatched his rifle off of the floor and Shaun grabbed his pistol from his pistol belt.

The men had broken through on both sides so Shaun leaned around Crossbones and opened fire on the ones coming from the right and Crossbones opened fire on the ones from the left. They took out the last one and Shaun leaned back against the wall and started fastening his vest properly.

"What's weird?" he asked casually, as though they hadn't just been interrupted by a fire fight.

"The Witch was wounded at the same time you went down."

"And?"

"It was in the same place you said you were wounded." Shaun closed his eyes and focussed on blocking out the pain, taking deep breaths and trying to centre himself. It took him a few second but he eventually managed to ignore the pain enough that he could stand, and probably fight.

"Where is she?" he asked as he reloaded his pistol.

"I moved her into the reactor. She's no good at the minute." Shaun nodded and raised his pistol, picking off someone who was sneaking up on the Soldier. Even as he stood next to Rumlow, taking out anyone that he could his mind was whirring. He was trying to figure out what was going on, why he felt the pain when Wanda was the one that got injured.

He peeked his head through the doorway into the reactor room and saw that the engineer was just finishing up planting the last of the explosives.

"Quicksilver, I need you to bring me my sword and then get your sister out of here." Shaun ordered before he issued orders to the others "Prepare to move out. The principle is finished. Ares, we're coming out. That escape route had better be clear."

"I'm working on it."

"Work quicker. You're out of time and the Witch is wounded."

Just as he finished talking Quicksilver appeared in front of him in a blur of silver and thrust his sword into his hand before disappearing again. Shaun twirled it once to get used to it again before turning towards the entrance.

"We're not going to make it out. There are too many of them." Crossbones said as Quicksilver shot out of the reactor room in a blur.

"We will if we can blow the charges. Use them to clear the path."

"We'd never make it out in time."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"We need to clear the path first."

"I have an idea. Hawkeye, I need area effect arrows down that corridor now. Jordan, fireballs in the same place, as quick as you can. Clear the area."

The two men moved into position and Shaun watched as they pelted the corridor with enough firepower to knock some tiles off of the roof and wall.

"Let's go. Crossbones, grab the principle." Shaun ordered before he started running down the corridor, keeping it steady so that the others could keep up. He passed by a guard who had been knocked dizzy by the explosions and swung his sword almost idly, cutting his head off.

They rounded a corner and Shaun ducked as someone tried to take his head off. Before Shaun could react the Soldier jumped over him and knocked the guy out.

"Crossbones, blow the charges." Shaun called as they started running again. There was a few seconds silence before the first explosion sounded behind them, shaking the building. It was followed by a second and a third, and then a fourth, this one closer to them.

"The building's going to come down around us." Jordan called out.

"Then run faster." Shaun replied as an explosion sounded right behind them, bringing the ceiling crashing down around them. The door was just ahead but it didn't look like they were going to make it, they were too far away and the building was falling around their ears.

They were halfway there when a huge chunk of the roof fell away right above them. Shaun slid to a halt, this was the end of the sim; there was no way that they were getting away from this. He looked up and watched the chunk fall, just waiting for the pain of the sim to be revoked as they returned to real life.

But the pain didn't come. Instead the chunk of roof was wreathed in scarlet energy that stopped the chunk from crushing them all. They looked at the end of the corridor to see Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch standing there.

The Witch was leaning on Quicksilver, who was practically holding her up. One of her hands was extended towards them but it was shaking quite badly.

"Hurry up. She won't be able to hold it for long." Quicksilver called. The others shared a glance before Shaun grabbed the engineers other arm and he and Crossbones started sprinting down the hallway with the others hot on their tale.

They reached the doorway and dived past the two standing there just as the Witch's arm fell and there was a huge crashing sound as the rock fell to the ground behind them. Shaun whistled lightly, glad that they hadn't been standing under that when it fell.

"Well, not that I'm not glad that that's over but let's get out of here." Crossbones muttered.

"Ares, we're out. Cover us to the tree line. That should end the sim. Quicksilver, get your sister back to cover. Then maybe you can ferry us across there, see if you can speed up the evac."

It didn't take them long to reach the treeline. Shaun was three quarters of the way there when Quicksilver appeared by his side.

"I've got the others out. Let's go." Shaun nodded and held out his arm. Quicksilver grabbed him by the arm and they disappeared in a blur, reappearing in the treeline next to the others. As soon as they stopped the scenery around them started to disappear, almost as though it was dissolving around them.

It took a few seconds but when it had gone they were standing in the same old rectangular room which was completely unadorned.

The door opened and Mr Jones walked in, clapping slowly.

"Congratulations, well done. I think you have two new team members."

"What happened?" Shaun rounded on the team, ignoring Jones "Wanda should have been able to cope with a sim that easy." Shaun glanced over at Wanda, who was pushing herself to her feet. The wound had disappeared when the sim ended.

"It wasn't anyone's fault. We just need to practice as a team more. We weren't working together properly, not like we did before." Brock told him "What happened to you?"

"I think I have an idea." He turned to face Jones "I'll do some research. If I'm right we'll need some time off and a quinjet."

"Why would I give you that?"

"Because if I'm right and we don't do something about it it could destroy us. And if we do train it we could be more powerful than ever."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Shaun landed the quinjet that Jones had let them use right on the edge of the village. The quinjet was cloaked so that none of the villagers would see it as he landed it. Parked in the loading bay out back was an open top jeep, the only other thing that Jones had let them borrow.

Wanda was sitting in the co-pilots seat, asleep but she jerked awake when the quinjet touched down.

"We're here." He told her before pushing himself out of his seat and walking into the back. They'd each packed travel bags before they left and Shaun had packed a second bag with a laptop and some other stuff. They weren't planning on coming back to the quinjet once they'd left it.

Shaun picked his two bags off of the floor of the quinjet and placed them in the back of the jeep. His sword was attached to one of his bags, as well as a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Wanda came through from the cockpit and picked up her own bag as Shaun was rummaging around in the weapons locker that he had filled before they left.

He pulled out a bolt action hunting rifle with a scope and carried it to the jeep. He placed it in the weapons rack behind the driver's seat and climbed in.

"Open the doors?" he asked her. She sighed and leaned out of the window, using her powers to push the button to open the doors.

"I suppose you want me to close them too?"

"We don't want just anyone walking in there." He replied as he put the jeep into reverse and started to pull it out down the ramp. They hit the bottom and Wanda pushed the button to close the door behind them.

Shaun smirked and started to drive towards the village. It didn't take them long to arrive, at which point they pulled up outside of a hut that was sat a little bit away from the rest of the village. There a man sitting outside of the hut, a man that Shaun recognised and hadn't seen in a very long time.

"Salut, Afolabi." Shaun called as he stepped down from the jeep.

"Ce que tu faits ici?" Afolabi asked.

"We're here because we need your help. Nous allons dedans?"

"Follow me." He led them inside the hut. He waved his hand at the ground, indicating that they could take a seat. Shaun dropped down and crossed his legs, sitting comfortably. Wanda copied him and Afolabi took a seat on an old tree stump.

"What do you need help with?" Afolabi asked. His English had improved a lot since he had moved to this village.

"Show him." Wanda nodded and held her arm out, turning her hand face up so that Afolabi could see the tattoo "I gave it to her."

"And now we can feel what the other feels. I got shot and Shaun felt it."

"Folami." Afolabi breathed.

"Folami?" Wanda sounded almost as confused as Shaun was.

"Folami is the bonded one. She is bonded to Imamu. Folami makes Imamu stronger and vice versa. They can feel what the other feels at first but once the bond is complete they think what the other thinks, see what the other sees. Their bond is a source of great power."

"Then how do we complete the bond?" Wanda asked.

"You remember the ritual?" Afolabi asked him.

"Je me souviens."

"You must kill an animal, one that you don't have, and then you must both perform the ritual from the same kill."

"What ritual?" Wanda asked "I don't understand."

"I have to perform a ritual every time I want to take an attribute from an animal that I've killed. What I think Afolabi is suggesting is that we make a kill and we both perform the ritual using the blood from that kill." Shaun explained "But there's a problem with that. She doesn't have the marks. She can't take a spirit."

"Then we will have to give her the marks."

"What are you talking about?" Wanda was annoyed now, Shaun could feel her annoyance in him.

"To take a spirit you have to be a warrior. To be a warrior you have to have the marks. These marks." He ran his arms up the lines that spiralled up his arm.

"So if we want to complete the bond then I need to get those tattoos?"

"Exactly."

"Before I agree to anything I need to know what the advantages of this are. You've told us that the bond is a source of great power but what does that mean exactly?"

"That means that you will make each other stronger, more powerful. Imamu, you will be able to access more of the spirits that you collect at once. Wanda, you will find that your magic is easier to control and more powerful than ever." Afolabi explained "You will be able to draw on each other's strength, so that when you are weak or tired you can keep fighting through it. You'll always be able to know where the other is if you want to, you will be able to feel each other's emotions, even get a sense of what the other is thinking. And if needs be you will be able to see through each other's eyes and hear through each other's ears."

"And what are the problems if we don't?" Shaun asked.

"The bond will grow stronger and stronger until you can't survive without it, and then it will break. If you're lucky it will kill you but more than likely it will drive you both to insanity."

"Since when is death lucky?" Wanda asked.

"Trust me, there are worse things than death." Shaun muttered darkly "And I've seen almost all of them."

"We don't have a choice then do we?"

"It looks like that. You need to take your marks, and then we need to talk you through the ritual."

"If you want to take your marks we must return to the sacred cave." Afolabi told them.

"Tu es sûr? It's not safe there. The rebels will still be watching for us."

"I'm sure. It's the only way."

Shaun had parked the jeep a couple of miles down the road and Wanda had used her power to pull some shrubbery and trees down to hide it from any rebels.

Now the three of them were crouching in some shrubbery watching for any rebels who might be lurking around the cave entrance, which was no longer hidden, that led to the old village where Afolabi had lived.

"I thought you said you killed all the rebels?" Wanda asked.

"I killed most of them. And then the survivors sort of formed together and dedicated themselves to hunting down the rest of the tribe. Meaning me and Afolabi."

"What's so special about this sacred cave that they watch it in case you come back?"

"It is the only place where a warrior can be marked." Afolabi explained "If the Unduli are ever to resurface we must have access to the cave."

Shaun was ignoring the two of them as they spoke, he was now looking down the scope on the rifle that he had brought from the jeep.

"I can't see anybody but they could be hiding. And there might be people inside."

"Is there another way in?" Wanda asked.

"There is a second entrance, but it can only be opened from the inside." Afolabi replied.

"The one in the sacred cave?" Afolabi nodded "Then that's our escape route. If we can sneak in we can seal the entrance from the inside and then go out through the back. Hopefully no fighting required."

They walked down the path into the cave and Shaun felt his heart wrench as they saw the remains of the village. There were scorch marks all over the place and the huts were all burned to a cinder. He felt a hand on his back and knew that it was Wanda. Their bond may not be at its strongest right now but he had gotten quite good at recognising her voice and her touch and they had both gotten quite good at recognising what the other was feeling.

"I'll be fine. I just haven't been back since she died." He told her as he reached up and grabbed the ring hanging around his neck tightly. She nodded once and together they made their way down the path. Afolabi led them to the ruins of his old hut and through a cave entrance in the rock wall at the back of the hut.

As the other two made their way down the tunnel Shaun stopped and turned around to face the destroyed village hidden in the cavern. He closed his eyes and when he opened them there was a slight burning on his arm and he knew that the eagle tattoo on his arm was glowing.

He used his enhanced eyesight to scan the village for any rebels who might be waiting to report on them to their leaders. When he didn't spot any he reached out and grabbed the heavy stone door that was propped against the wall. His bear tattoo started to burn and he used the strength to pull the door closed.

He lifted a large stone slab over the door so that it couldn't be pushed open from the outside and turned to make his way down the passage.

He could feel Wanda's sense of awe as he made his way down the path. That meant that they had probably reached the cave, which would explain where the bats came from. He smiled lightly, he had felt exactly the same when he first saw the sacred cave; it was a truly amazing place.

He reached the end of the path and stepped into the cave. Wanda was still standing by the entrance, staring at the walls in amazement. Afolabi was unpacking all of the things that they needed to give Wanda her marks.

The cave itself was small, but not too small. All of the walls were covered in cave paintings which depicted the history of Imamu; Shaun's history. The pictures were amazingly detailed, so detailed, in fact, that you could see all of the details on all of their faces. The wall was scattered with precious gems which were reflecting light like a disco ball. The light itself was coming from an altar in the middle of the cave.

It was long and flat, big enough for a person to lay on, which was the idea. The glow that it gave off wasn't blinding but it was enough to light up the gems on the wall and make colours dance all across the cave floor.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Shaun asked Wanda. She jumped, almost as though she hadn't seen him there, which was entirely possible considering that she was looking at one of the most amazing things that Shaun had ever seen "I like to think of it as the eighth wonder of the world."

"It's definitely a wonder."

Shaun guided her to the altar in the middle of the room and she lay on it as Afolabi directed. Afolabi was standing next to her holding what looked like a brand on one of his hands. Shaun knew that the brand was how the shaman gave all of the Unduli their tattoos. The end would be coated in Wanda's blood, which would have been heated before the brand was dipped in it.

Shaun locked eyes with Wanda as Afolabi lowered the brand to the back of her hand. She gasped as he pushed it against her skin and held it there for 10 seconds before he pulled it away.

When he did there was a circular tattoo on the back of her hand identical to the one on the back of his own hand.

"That wasn't too bad." She told him.

"That was the easy part." He took her hand in his and squeezed it in support "This is where the pain starts." Almost as soon as he said it she screamed in pain. He knew what was happening but he looked down to her arm anyway so that he could check. Sure enough lines were starting to sprout from the circular mark that Afolabi had made and were slowly crawling up her arm. She grasped his hand so tight that she almost broke his bones but he just grimaced and held on tight, muttering support to her as she screamed in pain.

It took almost five minutes for the lines to reach her shoulders, where they stopped. Unlike the lines on Shaun's arm, which were dark and bold, these lines were pale, barely noticeable. Shaun had noticed that happen occasionally, sometimes the mark didn't take as well. When they took their spirit it didn't affect them as strongly as those with whom the mark took properly. The marks were never as bold on these individuals.

"Bienvenue, Wanda au Unduli." Afolabi welcomed her into the tribe. Shaun pulled her into a sitting position and gave her a hug.

"You're one of us now."

It had been quite difficult for them to get out of the cavern once they had done everything that they needed. The rebels had known about the hidden exit and had been lying in wait for them to come out. Shaun and Wanda managed to fight them off but they couldn't risk going back to the village and leading them to Afolabi's home so the three of them were lying low in the middle of the jungle.

Shaun had built a small fire and Afolabi was sat as close to it as he could, holding his hands up to the flames. Wanda was laid on her back next to it, studying her new marks. And Shaun was sitting in the shadows away from the fire cleaning his rifle.

He was surrounded by weapons. His bow was leaning against the tree he was leaning on and there were 5 arrows stuck into the ground next to it. His sword belt was hanging off of the branch of the tree so that both his sword and pistol were within easy reach. And there was a spear lying on the ground in front of him that he had fashioned out of a tree branch, some rope and a stone.

"What are you doing?" Wanda asked. She pushed herself up so that she was leaning on her elbows to look at him.

"I'm preparing."

"What for?"

"The next step." It was Afolabi that replied "Taking the marks was only the first step. Now you must complete the bond."

"We need to go hunting."

"What about the rebels?"

"I'm pretty certain that we lost them. I can't smell them anymore." As he said that the bloodhound tattoo on his arm started to glow and he sniffed at the air "They aren't here. But we won't be able to go back to the jeep. We'll drop Afolabi off first thing in the morning and then we'll hunt. You two get some rest. I'll take watch."

Dropping Afolabi off had been the easy part. Shaun had been right, they had lost the rebels before they camped down for the night and the most difficult task had been helping the old man through the bush.

After they had left Afolabi at his village Shaun had led them to the nearest plain where they could hunt the larger animals that they would need to complete the ritual for the both of them.

"What are we going to hunt?" she asked him.

"You don't really get a choice out here. You hunt the first thing you find and you use it no matter what it is. More difficult is to find an animal out here that I don't already have, this is, after all, where I got most of my marks."

"So you must have an idea?"

"I always wanted a lion but I never got a chance to hunt one before I left."

"How are we meant to hunt a predator?"

"The same way I hunted a cheetah." He replied "They're mostly nocturnal so we sneak up on them during the day when they're sleeping. As long as we're careful they won't even know we're there until it's too late."

"And what happens when we kill one and the rest of the pride attacks us?"

"They aren't used to direct confrontation. The male is the one that protects the pride from usurpers. If we kill the male the females won't attack."

"How do you know all this?"

"You've never seen my room, have you?" she shook her head "I spend most of my spare time researching different animals and the powers that I could get from them. I have piles and piles of books on animals that I want to collect."

Wanda didn't reply, she just watched as he crouched down and closed his eyes. When he opened them his bloodhound tattoo was burning on his arm.

"All animals smell different." He explained to Wanda "hopefully I'll be able to differentiate between the lions and other animals. As soon as I've got the smell we're on."

"And which of your many weapons are you planning on killing with?"

"The rifle will be easiest, and better if I've screwed up and the females attack."

It took him half an hour to lock onto the lion's scent but when he did it didn't take them long to track them to their territory. The pride wasn't very large, there were 3 females, 1 male and 2 young cubs. They were resting on a rock formation that had a large tree growing on it when the found them and Shaun insisted that they studied them before they moved in for the kill.

They sat upwind a few miles away for what felt like hours, watching the pride until they had established their weakness. The male was lounging on one of the tree branches whilst the three females were sprawled out at the bottom of the tree in the shade and the cubs were playing with each other. There was a carcass of a rhino in the sun at the bottom of the rocks which Shaun guessed was freshly caught the night before, meaning that they would be even lazier today than normal.

Shaun was staring down the scope on his rifle, lining up the shot so that he could take out the male, who was the biggest threat, although that didn't meant that the others weren't threats to them.

He lined up the shot and breathed out slowly, centring himself before he pulled the trigger. The crack of the rifle split the near silence of the savannah and a second later the male toppled out of the tree and landed on the rock in the midst of the females.

The females jumped to their feet and started growling and one of them roared as the cubs came over to stand under their mother's legs where they were safe. Shaun kept watching the lions down the scope, waiting to see if they were going to leave or not.

They waited for 20 minutes before it became clear that the lionesses weren't planning on going anywhere, they were pacing around the rock, trying to scare away any predators who might take advantage of their new weakness.

"I'm going to have to take them out." He told Wanda. He couldn't see her but he could feel that she didn't like the idea.

"Even the cubs?"

"I'll avoid it if I can." He replied calmly as he traced one of the females with the scope as she paced around their territory. He pulled the trigger and she dropped onto her side where she stood. He breathed out and moved his sights onto the only other mother who wasn't protecting the cubs. She had stopped pacing and was crouched low to the ground, hissing in an attempt to ward off the threat. Shaun pulled the trigger and he legs went from underneath her and she fell flat on her stomach, her mouth still open.

He swept his scope over the rest of the rock but he couldn't see the final mother or the cubs anywhere. There wasn't an animal in sight and he found that quite disturbing, after staying for so long he didn't think that the final mother would flee.

"It's as clear as it's going to get from here." He told Wanda "Let's go." He pushed himself up from where he was laying on the floor and slung the rifle over his shoulder. He scooped the make shift spear off of the floor and made his way across the savannah to the rock outcrop that the lions had been using as their home.

When they arrived they couldn't see any sign of the remaining female or the cubs, which Shaun took, rather grudgingly, to mean that they had run away when the last female had been killed.

He approached the corpse of the male and pulled four bowls out of the pack that he carried on his back. He had talked Wanda through the ritual earlier and she knew what needed to be done. Whilst Shaun got out the wood that he had gathered and started to make the fire Wanda was kneeling by the male's corpse and filling the bowls with blood.

She came and sat cross-legged in front of his fire and placed the four bowls on the ground.

"Do you really want me to drink this?" she asked him.

"Only once I've blessed the lion's blood." He replied easily. He sat above the four bowls and held his hands over them. He started to chant in rapid French, so quickly that Wanda couldn't ever pick up on the sounds.

"I give thanks to Undu for helping me find this spirit and for giving me the strength to hunt it. Thanks to this animal for giving me your power and for permitting me to bond with your spirit. With the sacred blood of this animal I bring myself the strength and the power to protect the followers of Undu."

"There" he told her when he had finished "Now I expect you to drink it." He picked up one of the bowls and raised it in a toast. She copied him much more reluctantly and together they raised their bowls to their lips.

Shaun finished drinking long before Wanda did but that was to be expected, he was much more used to drinking a bowl of animal's blood than she was. Once she was finished they picked up one of the remaining bowls each and held it over the fire. Together they emptied their bowls into the flames, which immediately started to burn blood red. It continued to burn in that colour until all of the blood had gone from the bowls.

They both sat there, staring at each other for a few seconds before anything happened.

It was like there was an explosion inside of him, an explosion that enveloped his whole body. The explosion felt both warm and cold, wet and dry, calm and violent, all at the same time. He waited for it to pass away but it didn't and it was then that he realised that the explosion that had consumed him was actually his connection to Wanda.

He focussed on it and he could feel all of the things that she was feeling in a much greater detail than he had been able to previously. He could feel that she was angry, but he could also tell why, because he had lied to her about how the blood had tasted. He could tell that she was in awe of the strength of the connection between them and that she was slightly disgusted that they'd just killed a pride of lions, and probably left the cubs to die.

He focussed even more, closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could, and he felt something strange as part of his spirit seemed to detach from him and float over to Wanda. When he opened his eyes he wasn't looking from his own point of view, he was watching himself over the fire and he saw himself as Wanda did.

"Get out of my head." He heard her call. Except she hadn't opened her mouth. He could feel that it had remained closed. He heard her voice again, telling him to get out again, and he realised that he wasn't hearing her voice. He was hearing her thoughts.

He allowed his focus to drift and found himself returning to his own body, watching Wanda from across the fire.

"I could hear you thinking." He told her.

"I know. I could feel you inside my head."

"This is too weird."

"Will Afolabi be able to help us control it?"

"Yeah. But first there's something else that I want to do." He could feel her confusion wrap itself around him like a blanket but he forced himself to his feet despite it.

He picked up two of the bowls and walked over to the corpse of the rhino that the pride had killed. He felt Wanda's confusion disappear as she realised what he was about to do. He knelt next to the corpse and used a knife to cut through the animals tough hide and allow it to bleed freely again.

He filled the bowls with the blood and returned to the fire, muttering the blessing over the blood as he walked.

Shaun had performed the ritual and earned the power to harden his skin off of the rhino. By the times that they had finished the second ritual it had started to go dark and Shaun decided that it was too dangerous to be travelling at night so they decided to spend the night on the rock around their fire.

They spent most of the night trying to control their new connection. They discovered that they felt almost every single emotion that the other felt and they couldn't hear each other's' thoughts unless one of them was seeing things from the other's perspective.

But no matter what they tried they couldn't seem to block out the other's emotions, and it was ridiculously distracting, more distracting than Shaun had ever imagined that it would be. He found it hard to concentrate on the little things that they were trying to do and even harder to concentrate on keeping watch too.

Eventually, after a couple of hours, they decided to call it a night. Wanda offered to take first watch so Shaun lay down next to the fire and counted the stars to help him fall asleep.

He woke a few hours later to find that the stars were starting to give way to the light of dawn. He was still laying on his back so he couldn't see the campsite, but even so he knew that something was wrong. He didn't know how but his instincts were screaming at him that something wasn't as it should be.

He rolled onto his side slowly, his hand wrapping around the hilt of his sword that lay on the floor next to him.

He noticed two things at once, the first was that Wanda wasn't in the campsite. He couldn't see her anywhere but her jacket was still on the floor by the fire where she'd been sitting. The fire had died out so he thought that she might have gone to collect firewood, although he didn't know why when the sun was rising.

The second thing that he noticed was that there was something by the corpse of the rhino that the lion pride had killed two nights previously. The eagle tattoo on his arm started to burn and his eyes could easily make out the lioness that had run away when Shaun had killed the rest of the pack. The two cubs were with her and all three of them were ripping shreds off of the rhino. He assumed that the lioness hadn't been able to hunt successfully so they returned to the only meal that was available to them.

He moved slowly so as to not startle them as he moved to a more comfortable position, laying on his front facing them. He watched them for almost five minutes as they ate the meat from the corpse.

"Shaun!" he heard Wanda call. The lioness tensed as soon as she heard the voice, sensing that there was a threat nearby "Shaun! Get up!" Wanda came over the crest of the rock and into his view. Unfortunately she was also in the view of the lioness. The cubs bounced across the floor so that they were standing behind their mother, who was crouched low to the ground and growling at Wanda. For her part Wanda had stopped moving and dropped what she had been carrying.

Shaun had tensed up too, moving his body into a position where he could set off at a sprint if he needed to. The cheetah tattoo on his arm burned lightly, ready so that he could cover the distance if he needed to.

Then everything happened all at once. Shaun felt Wanda's fear turn to courage and decisiveness as her hands started to glow the scarlet colour that indicated she was about to do magic. Shaun leaped forwards, and started sprinting to cover the distance and the lioness started sprinting at Wanda.

Wanda's magic soared across the lioness' head, burning away a strip of fur behind her ear. Shaun reached them just as the lion pounced and instead of hitting Wanda the lioness hit him. He went crashing sideways to the floor and started rolling with the predator until eventually they settled with the lioness on top of him.

He expected her to attack him, or at the very least growl, but she did nothing of the sort. As soon as they stopped moving her weight lifted off of him and she stepped backwards, whimpering, with her head bowed, as though in deference to him.

He held a hand out to the side to stop Wanda, who was preparing to attack the lioness again. He felt her reluctance as she stood down but he ignored it as he walked towards the lioness.

"What's going on?" Wanda asked him.

"I think she can sense the male's spirit inside me." He replied quietly as he crouched down in front of the lioness and held out his hand.

"Then why can't she sense it in me?"

"The same reason your marks are fainter," he replied as the lion approached him and rubbed her head against his hand.

He ran his hand across the lion's head and she nuzzled against him even more. He beckoned Wanda over with his other hand and she slowly approached them. The lioness tensed up and growled a little but Shaun stroked her head again and she relaxed enough to let Wanda approach.

"Touch her, she might feel the spirit then." He told her. He could feel Wanda's nervousness, it was impressive how nervous a super powerful witch could feel about stroking a big cat. She reached out and placed her hand on the lioness' head and Shaun pulled his hand away but the lioness didn't tense or growl or attach, she just nuzzled the hand.

By now the cubs had come out of hiding from behind their mother, although they were still nervous about coming anywhere near to either Shaun or Wanda. Shaun walked slowly over to the rhino corpse and ripped off a strip of meat. He crouched down near to the cubs and held it out to them, waiting patiently as one of them came to sniff at it.

The cub pulled it from his hand. He started to eat it but the other cub pounced forwards and grabbed the other end and the two of them started to fight over the strip of meat. Shaun stepped backwards and crouched down next to Wanda.

"Will they survive?" she asked him. He could tell that she was worried about the lioness and her cubs without needing their bond.

"Cubs rarely survive in a pride. Their chances aren't great." He told her honestly. He doubted that he could lie to her with their bond so he didn't even want to try.

"Is there something that we could do?"

"There is one thing…"

Shaun watched from the doorway into Afolabi's hut as Wanda ran through her morning routine to keep her body and her magic in shape.

He was supposed to be meditating, he found it easier to do when she was concentrating, there were less distractions, but he just couldn't seem to focus on it today. As much as he wanted to master the bond his mind was wandering elsewhere.

So instead of meditating he was watching Wanda as she launched a bolt of scarlet energy at a nearby tree. The tree cracked in half and Shaun smiled as it did, trying to project his feelings to her, which was quite easy. The difficult bit was not sending them in the first place.

Afolabi told them that if they wanted to learn not to feel what the other felt then they had to learn to keep their emotions to themselves. Once they had learned to better control their emotions they would find it much easier to control their bond in general.

Shaun had always found that meditating helped to release his emotions because it meant that he could focus on only one thing rather than on his many emotions. Wanda found that training helped her to control her emotions and they both found that it was easier to do when the other was trying to clear their mind.

Going to the cave had reawakened some old feeling for him and he didn't know how to deal with them. He had dealt with Rose's death in the only way he knew how, through vengeance and anger, but now that he had gone back to the cave it had reminded him of how she had died, and more importantly, of how she had lived.

Flashback

Shaun swung his sword through the air and decapitated one of the soldiers from behind as he aimed his rifle at a group of Unduli children who were cowering in the doorway of a hut.

"Vas-y, vas-y!" he called at them "Cours!" the children nodded and started running down the path towards Afolabi's hut, which contained the entrance to the sacred cave.

He took a moment to assess the situation, allowing his rabbit spirit to enhance his hearing so that he could hear what was going on in places that he couldn't see.

The Unduli were losing, there was no doubt in his mind about that. Although the Unduli were better fighters, more often than not they didn't get a chance to show that as they were mowed down by gunfire before they could get close enough. And they were at a huge disadvantage because they had to protect all of the people that couldn't fight, whereas the rebels didn't have to worry about that.

He could hear the sounds of death all around him. The gunfire as rebels sprayed aimlessly towards groups of Unduli, the thud of bodies as they hit the floor, the twang of bow strings as they few surviving Unduli archers picked off attackers, the clash of metal as a warrior got close enough to challenge a rebel. He heard the cries of the children and the screams of their mothers as they watched them die in their arms. And he could hear Afolabi, shouting for the survivors to follow him as he led them towards the back exit in the sacred cave.

He couldn't hear Rose but that just made him feel better, that meant that she had probably made it to the cave and was heading to safety through the exit. At least now all he had to worry about was saving his people rather than saving his fiancée.

He heard a child sobbing close by and the laughter of some rebels who were taunting the boy. He set off sprinting towards them, channelling his cheetah spirit rather than the rabbit spirit so that he could get there before they killed the boy.

He rounded a corner and saw that he wasn't the only one who had heard the boy crying. Someone was standing between the boy and the rebels with their arms thrown out, as if to protect him. He couldn't see who it was because the rebels were between them and Shaun but it didn't matter, he wasn't going to let them die doing his job.

He lifted his sword above his shoulder before snapping his arm forwards and letting go of the hilt, sending the sword hurling through the air at a ridiculous pace thanks to the bear spirit. It buried itself in the back of the rebel, who pulled the trigger of his rifle on reflex as his body slumped to the floor.

Shaun saw the bullets tear into the boy's protector but he didn't have time to see who it was, he was already channelling the cheetah spirit again as he sprinted towards the other two rebels, who were both turning to face him.

He made quick work of them once he had reached them and the fight didn't last more than a couple of seconds. He made his way over to the first body and placed his foot on the rebels back to give him better purchase as he pulled his sword out.

He started to walk towards the boy, who was cowering behind a large wicker basket, but he stopped when his eyes landed on the boy's protector.

Her red hair was unique here, there was no one in the Unduli with hair as red as hers. It was fanned out on the floor underneath her like it did when she was sleeping. If it wasn't for the fact that she was riddled with bullet holes he might be able to accept that she was asleep.

Shaun let out a sob and rushed over to her, dropping to his knees and scooping her into his arms. He held her against his arms as he sobbed into her hair. He wasn't much for praying but he prayed now, he prayed that it was all a dream, that he was going to wake up lying in his bed with her at his side because there was no way that she could be dead. She had gone with Afolabi, he had protected her, gotten her out of the village. That was what had happened. There was no way she was dead.

But even as he prayed he knew that it wasn't what had happened. There was no mistaking her shock of red hair or the birth mark on her collar bone, no mistaking the spattering of freckles across her nose or the scent of her perfume, which was lavender.

He sobbed into her hair for what felt like years but could have been mere minutes. He felt like his whole life had ground to a halt around him, that the only thing that mattered was her cold, lifeless corpse hanging limply in his arms.

And whilst he was holding her to his chest and crying into her hair his eyes were focussed on one thing, only one thing. He saw it so clearly, despite everything else being so clouded, that it etched itself into his mind. He would carry this image with him for the rest of his days, a totem for his hatred, his anger and his lust for vengeance.

His eyes were locked onto the weapon of the man that had killed her, a rifle, brand new, with one word etched onto the side: _Stark._

"Here's one." He snapped his head to the side and saw two rebels stood over him with their own rifles raised.

He let out a roar that shook the cave, a roar of anguish and pain, despair and fury, a roar that came from not just him but from all of his spirits. Each of them roared with him and the sound shook the cave and gave pause to the men standing before him.

His arm was burning and he looked down to see that all of his tattoos were glowing, he was channelling the spirit of every single animal that lived on inside of him.

He lowered Rose's body to the ground gently and pushed himself to his feet. He picked his sword up from where he dropped it on the floor and marched towards the two men, twirling his sword furiously as he did.

He was being controlled by his anger and the anger of his spirits, and the despair he felt at losing the love of his life. He allowed them to lead him because if he didn't he would have to face the pain of what he had just lost, and it would cripple him.

He tore through the two men as though they weren't even there, like they were just smoke in the wind. He marched through the village towards the sounds of fighting without a second thought to the two rebels he had just killed.

He reached Afolabi's hut, the entry to the sacred cave, and saw that it had been blown apart and the rebels were pouring down the passageway to the cave. He called out to them, something resembling a word but that he couldn't understand in his emotion fuelled state, and they turned to face him, raising their rifles.

He channelled all of his spirits into a roar again as he charged towards them. They stumbled over themselves to get away and Shaun smirked viciously to himself as he set about ripping through them as though they were paper men.

Flashback end

He'd tried not to think about Rose when he joined Loki's Dark Unit. He told himself that it was because it was too painful to think about her, that he needed to leave her in the past, but visiting the cave had forced him to face his real reason.

He hadn't thought about Rose because he knew that she wouldn't have approved of what he was doing. She had died protecting a young boy that she didn't even know, she had spent her life trying to help people.

She had told him once that one of the reasons that she loved him was because he had joined the army because he wanted to protect people. That was why he had accepted becoming Imamu, so that he could protect people who needed him.

But that wasn't what he was doing anymore. He wasn't protecting people, he was oppressing them, killing them, destroying their lives, and the world along with it.

He knew what she would say to him if she were still here, he knew that she would want him to leave the Dark Unit, maybe try and rebuild the Unduli, but even though he knew that was what she had wanted, and that was what he would have wanted when he was with her, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

She wasn't here anymore, and although he still loved her, he couldn't live his life for her, he had to live it for himself. And not the version of himself that had been a soldier in love, that Shaun Hunter didn't exist anymore. It had died when she did, and when he had been punished for punishing her killers. No, he needed to live his life for the man who had come out of the other side, the man that was struggling to survive on his own. The man who had slaughtered women and children because they believed the same thing as the rebels that had killed his wife.

And there was one more reason worth staying. One reason that trumped the others, one reason that he wouldn't be able to get rid of.

When Rose had died Shaun had thought that he would never have friends again, he would never love again. And he still wasn't sure that he would love. He had joined the Dark Unit as a means to get revenge on Tony Stark but on the way he had found himself bonding with people with similar experiences to him, he had found himself with friends again.

His eyes landed on Wanda as she lifted one of the lion cubs that they had brought with them into the air with her magic.

When he was with her he felt almost whole again. It was as though when Rose had died he had been shattered into a thousand pieces and Wanda, and to some degree Pietro and Brock, had helped him to put himself back together again. The pieces weren't in the same place, and he wasn't the same as he was before but he was almost whole again and he couldn't give that up just yet.

a/n: I've provided translations for the French at the start below

Salut, Afolabi = Hi, Afolabi

Ce que tu faits ici? = What are you doing here?

Nous allons dedans? = Can we go inside?

Je me souviens. = I remember

If there's any sentences that I missed feel free to let me know and I'll add them to the list.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The quinjet touched down on the top of the Dark Unit HQ and Shaun hit the button to open the back doors. Wanda was already sat in the back with the three lions that they had brought back from Africa with them. The mother, who they had called Sekhmet after the Egyptian warrior goddess who was depicted as a lioness, was currently sleeping laying across the benches against one of the walls. The two cubs, Nala and Simba, were playing with each other in the middle of the loading bay of the quinjet.

Shaun walked out of the cockpit and saw that Wanda was busy grabbing the bags that she had packed for the journey. Shaun pulled his from the storage space and slung it over his shoulder before whistling sharply, getting the attention of the cubs and waking up Sekhmet.

Wanda started making her way down the ramp and Simba chased after her. Over the couple of weeks since they had adopted the lions Shaun had noticed that Simba was the most adventurous of the cubs. Nala always seemed to prefer to stay with her mother, or with Shaun and Wanda.

Shaun followed them down the ramp with Sekhmet following on one side and Nala on the other. They got to the bottom of the ramp to find that there were more people waiting for them than he had expected.

Pietro was a given, there was no way that the man wasn't going to be there to welcome his sister back after a month long absence. The two were currently hugging whilst Simba was crouched behind Wanda's legs and growling at the others who were waiting for them.

Brock was there, perhaps not surprisingly, to welcome home two of the only people that he actually spoke to in this new world that Loki had built.

It was the last three people that Shaun was surprised to see waiting for them. Jordan Wayne, who Shaun had given the codename Inferno before they left, was also there and Shaun didn't really know why, they hadn't known him for more than a couple of days before they had left for a month. Hawkeye was there too, and Shaun could at least guess what he was doing there seeing as the last person there was Mr Jones, the head of the Commission, which meant that Hawkeye was probably there so that Shaun wouldn't kill him for whatever bad news or mission he was there to give them.

Shaun completely ignored Jones and Hawkeye and instead made his way over to Brock and Jordan. He shook Jordan's hand and they exchanged a few pleasantries before he and Brock embraced in a very manly hug. Then he swapped positions with Wanda so that she could greet Brock and Jordan and he could give Pietro another very manly hug.

The reunion was rather cheerful seeing as the lions decided that the others weren't a threat and Simba and Nala tackled Shaun to the floor between them. He started rolling around play fighting with the two lion cubs whilst the others looked on and laughed and Sekhmet laid down in the sun.

Or it was cheerful until Mr Jones decided that it was time to cut the reunion short and insert himself into the conversation.

"Yes, yes, welcome back." His voice cut through the conversation like a knife through butter, stopping everything. Shaun pushed himself to his feet to stand at the front of his team. He was sure that if he concentrated he would be able to feel the hostility pouring off of Wanda, but he had enough hostility of his own to go around. He didn't like Jones, he was too arrogant and slippery, like nothing in the world could touch him, and he never took any regard to the team's needs. Sekhmet pushed herself to her feet and crouched close to the ground, growling threateningly at the man as the two cubs moved to hide behind Shaun's legs.

"Welcome back." Jones repeated now that he had their undivided attention "But the holiday's over. You have work to do."

"No, I have unpacking to do. And then we have a team training session scheduled." Shaun replied easily. He clicked his fingers at his side and Sekhmet stopped growling at Jones and prowled over to stand next to Shaun. He placed his hand on her neck and stroked soothing patterns there to calm both her and himself.

"Not any more. This takes priority until it's finished." Jones told them "Meet me in the briefing room in 10 minutes."

He turned and walked away, with Hawkeye hot on his heels, and Sekhmet growled at him as he walked away.

"Well, that's ruined the mood." Brock commented dryly.

"You heard the man, let's go. And don't be late or I might decide he doesn't need both his legs." He called over his shoulder as he walked into the lift and pushed the button for their floor, holding it just long enough for Sekhmet and Simba to join him.

He walked into his room and patted the bed. Sekhmet got the idea and jumped up, making her self comfortable as she spread across the bottom of the bed but Simba was running around the room, smelling all of the new things.

Shaun smiled as he dropped his bag at the bottom of the bed and started pulling off his clothes. He didn't really care what Jones thought of him but there was no way he was going to this briefing in the same clothes that he had worn all the way from Africa. They smelled horrible and they weren't too comfortable either.

He threw them in the direction of the washing basket in the corner of his room and pulled a pair of jeans and a Def Leppard t-shirt out of his wardrobe. A quick spray of deodorant and some aftershave later and he was ready to go. He grabbed a blazer jacket from the hook by the door and almost as an afterthought he picked up a knife that was on the shelf next to his door and tucked it into one of the pockets on his blazer.

He whistled and Simba darted across the room to join him. Sekhmet came at a much more sedate pace but she too followed Shaun out of the room and down the corridor. He met Wanda and Pietro at the lift with Nala, who immediately pounced on her brother.

"Shall we?" Shaun asked them, indicating the elevator door which had just opened. They pushed the button the floor below and descended in silence.

When they arrived they found that they were the last to get there, the other were already sat in the briefing room, which was basically a room with long table in the middle with enough seats for all of them and computer screens built in and a large screen on the wall at the end of the table.

Shaun took his seat at the head of the table and Wanda sat at his left with Pietro at his right. Brock and the Soldier were the next down, and then Ares and Jordan. Hawkeye was stood in the corner of the room, clearly expecting some trouble from someone, probably Shaun. Wanda used her powers to lift Nala onto the table where she curled into a ball and fell asleep. Sekhmet curled herself around the back of Shaun's chair and Simba decided to go for a run around the room.

Jones was the only one that wasn't there yet. The others just sat in an awkward silence, none of them really wanting to talk so instead most of them focussed their attention on Simba, who was jumping at the door trying to reach the handle.

Shaun heard Jones coming before anyone else did and clicked his fingers to call Simba away from the door before he could get hit when it opened. The excitable cub came bounding over just in time as Jones pushed the door open and strode to the head of the table where he stood in front of the screen.

Shaun looked at Wanda and without any acknowledgement she pointed behind her and the door slammed shut, causing Jones to jump a little. Shaun smirked as he leaned back in his seat.

"What's the problem?" Jones took a second to compose himself before picking up a remote off of the desk and clicking one of the buttons. A satellite image of an area outside of New York appeared on the screen and on the ones in the desk in front of them.

Shaun didn't move as the others leaned forwards to look at the screens in front of them.

"Whilst you were gone there has been an increase in rebel attacks in New York." Jones explained "We have narrowed the search for their base to this area."

"By we you mean you did nothing whilst the rest of the team did all of the work?"

"And where were you, Hunter? Whilst I was sitting on my ass you were running away." Jones replied.

"You may be a big shot now but I remember you before Loki came. You forget that I was there when you got your Medal of Honour, Brigadier General." Shaun's words seemed to really get to the man as he paled noticeably.

Jones stumbled backwards without even realising that he was doing it and Hawkeye stepped forwards, not to catch him but to attack Shaun by the looks of things. He was raising his bow and one hand was reaching over his shoulder to draw an arrow from his quiver. At the same time that Hawkeye moved everyone else was moving too.

Brock clotheslined Ares from where he was sitting, sending the AI crashing out of his feet and onto the floor, where Wanda pinned him with her magic. Pietro disappeared in a blur of silver and reappeared a moment later with Hawkeye's bow in his hand, which he dumped onto the table. Jordan moved to take out the Winter Solider but he wasn't quick enough and he found the Soldier pinning him to the table and drawing a pistol to point at Shaun.

Shaun hurled the knife from inside his jacket at Hawkeye, who dived to the floor to get out of the way and the knife buried itself in the wall where his shoulder had been. Sekhmet was there, pinning the man to the ground with her teeth poised on his throat so that if he moved he'd rip his own throat out on her teeth.

The Winter Soldier fired and a bullet rammed himself into Shaun's shoulder, staggering him backwards. As he went he snatched a pen off of the table and hurled it under armed with the force of his bear spirit.

It struck into the Soldier's right arm, the one that wasn't metal and the Soldier involuntarily released his grip on Jordan, who took advantage of it. His hands started to glow red and he reached behind him to grab the Soldier's metal arm. He managed to twist himself around so that he was now facing the Soldier and pressed his other hand to the top of the Soldier's arm, which started to melt away.

Shaun started to walk around the table, ignoring the bleeding from his shoulder, it would heal soon enough. He stopped so that he was standing right in front of Jones, almost nose to nose.

"You think you're so powerful, so important, that you're so much better than the rest of us. But you aren't. You say I was running away but you are the real coward here. Do you want to tell everyone what happened in Kandahar or shall I?"

"I saved those men's lives! I was a hero!" Jones swung for Shaun but Shaun was much quicker, he caught the punch, twisted Jones' arm behind his back painfully and then pushed him away into the wall.

"It was a standard joint op." Shaun started "I was part of an SAS unit on special assignment in Kandahar. We were to observe a suspected Taliban hideout and eliminate any high value targets." Jones pushed himself off of the wall and charged at Shaun again, but Shaun simply stepped around him and kicked him hard in the back of the knee. There was a popping sound and Shaun was certain that he'd just dislocated his knee.

"We were observing the location when we got word that the local Taliban cell had kidnapped the daughter of a high ranking military official and one of the marines from her convoy." Jones managed to push himself to his feet and swung at Shaun again. Shaun grabbed his arm and smacked his fist hard into the elbow, popping that out of its joint too.

"We were told that they were sending a marine unit in to rescue the hostages and that we were the closest reinforcements to their location." Jones charged at him again and this time he went for a tackle, wrapping his arms around Shaun's waist and trying to knock him over, except that he didn't have enough speed due to his dislocated knee and he barely even moved Shaun.

"Jones was NCO for the team sent to rescue the hostages." He brought his elbow crashing down into Jones' spine "It started out well but everything went tits up when they reached the hostages." He drove his elbow into Jones' spine again and then threw him against the wall "The girl had been rigged to blow and no one knew. The device went off and blew half of the unit up. Then the Taliban swarmed the unit to eliminate them."

He walked over to his knife still stuck in the wall and pulled it out.

"We were sent in to rescue the rescuers."

Flashback

Shaun pressed himself against the wall next to the door and placed his hand on the handle. His four man team stacked up with him, two at the other side of the wall and one behind him. Burrows, the man across from him, nodded and Shaun pushed the door open. Burrows stepped through doorway and Shaun followed behind him.

They could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from further in the compound so they pushed forwards as quickly as they could. Burrows pushed a door open and they filed in to a room that had clearly seen a battle recently.

It was scorched, as though there had been an explosion, and the wall was riddled with bullet holes and, perhaps most tellingly, there were 5 burnt corpses on the floor. Two were next to each other in the middle of the blast radius, sitting on chairs. Shaun guessed that there were the hostages and that they had been rigged to blow when the rescuers arrived.

The other three corpses were the marines sent to rescue the hostages who had been caught in the blast. Shaun looked at Burrows and he knew what the man was thinking before he called the orders.

"Split up. Hunter, West, take this floor then meet us on the roof. Bridge, you're with me. We'll clear the next floor."

Shaun pointed down the corridor closest to them and set off with West hot on his tail. It took them less than 5 minutes to clear the floor and make it to the stairwell. There were only two floors in the building so it didn't take them very long to climb to the roof either.

As they reached the second floor the sounds of gunfire became clear to their ears. Shaun picked up their pace and they were soon pushing open the door and charging through to the nearest cover that they could find.

Shaun peeked out around the corner of the half-wall and took stock of the situation. There were 3 survivors of the marine squad pinned on a small rooftop a couple of buildings away and they were taking fire from a large group of insurgents from all sides.

The other members of the SAS squad were taking much heavier fire, the insurgents must have redirected their firepower as soon as the larger threat appeared; that was what Shaun would have done.

Shaun was about to start giving instruction when he spotted someone taking fire on another rooftop. He couldn't quite make them out, or figure out how they got there, but if they were taking fire from insurgents then they needed to be saved.

"West, relieve some of the fire from the rest of the team. Try to punch through to the survivors." West nodded and dashed off to the next cover and started to fire on the insurgents. Shaun set off at a sprint towards the pinned down man. He was over halfway there when the insurgents spotted him and he came under fire.

He slid to a stop behind a half-wall and ducked behind it. He pulled two grenades off of his belt and pulled the pins before hurling them over the wall at the rooftops where the insurgents were firing from. He waited patiently until the grenades exploded, clearing the rooftops and dramatically lessening the enemy gunfire.

Shaun vaulted over the wall and continued sprinting towards the man, now taking much less fire. He slid into the cover next to the man. Shaun ran his eyes over him, assessing that he wasn't injured, and also learning that his name was Sergeant Jones.

"Sergeant, can you hear me Sergeant?" Shaun called out but the Sergeant ignored him. Shaun realised that the man was panicking and had quite possibly gone into shock so he did the only thing that he could, he smacked him across the face.

The Sergeant jerked out of his trance and looked around, his eyes full of shock.

"Sergeant, I'm Corporal Hunter, 22 SAS. I'm here to rescue you. Are you injured?" Jones shook his head "Do you have ammo?" Jones nodded "Then get ready to run, we need to make it to the others for the evac."

He didn't give the Sergeant a choice, he just grabbed his wrist and dragged him across the rooftop towards the others, who had all joined up so that now they were all pinned down together. Shaun took a bullet in the arm and Jones took a couple as well but they kept running right up to the meagre cover that their allies had found and dropped in next to them.

"How long until the chopper arrives?" Shaun called.

"My radio isn't working." Burrows called back "We're on our own." Shaun reached across and yanked the radio from Jones' chest and threw it to Burrows, who immediately started talking into it.

Shaun poked his head over the top of the wall and opened fire on some of the insurgents. He downed two insurgents before he was forced to duck back into cover before he got shot himself.

"Chopper is 5 mikes…" Burrows called but he was cut off before he could finish. Shaun turned around in time to see Burrows fall to the floor, the radio falling out of his hand as he did. Blood pooled around his body and Shaun could see the hole in the side of his head.

"Jones, you're in command now." Shaun called out to the NCO that had been cowering on his own. He didn't think that the man would be good in command if a firefight made his withdraw like it had but rules were rules and Jones was the next highest ranking amongst them.

"Jones, you're in command. What should we do? The chopper is 5 mikes out. What should we do?" Jones didn't reply so Shaun started barking orders, moving the troops into a more defensible position so that they could last until the chopper arrived.

They managed to hold out for the whole 5 mikes until the chopper arrived. But they were under too much heavy fire and the chopper had to land on the rooftop five buildings away.

"Jones, the chopper is here. Let's go." Shaun called out "Move, move, move!"

"No." Jones spoke up for the first time since Shaun had rescued him "We'll never make it." He stopped for a moment to think "You three" he pointed out three of their men, including two of Shaun's own squad "Draw their fire, once we're aboard the chopper we'll come back for you."

The three men didn't look happy about it and Shaun was furious but they couldn't disobey his commands. They all knew that they were basically leaving them behind to die but they didn't have a choice.

"Here," Shaun pulled his last grenade off of his belt and all of his ammo and handed it to one of the men. Then he grabbed Jones' ammo and grenades and handed them out too "Who dares wins." He quoted the SAS motto to them and then prepared himself for his sprint to the chopper. He could see the others doing the same.

"Semper fi." One of the marines called as everyone set off sprinting.

"Oh rah." The others, apart from Jones, replied.

Shaun was at the back of their group of three and he watched as the chopper drew closer. They were halfway there when he saw a bullet smash into the back of the marine who was running in front of him.

The man stumbled and fell to the floor and was struck by four more bullets as he fell. Shaun wanted to stop and drag him along but it was quite clear that the man was already dead and there was nothing that Shaun could do to fix that so he jumped over the body and kept sprinting.

He was at the rungs of the chopper when he heard a noise approaching from behind him. It was a noise that he was all too familiar with, the sound of an RPG right before it made contact.

He heard the explosion a split second before he felt it. The rocket hit the floor behind him and the explosion sent him flying forwards. He felt the heat on his back as his clothes, and his skin, were burned away. He landed half in the chopper and smacked his head on the floor. His vision went black and the last thing he remembered was the searing pain of the fire.

Flashback ends

"The door gunner pulled me on to the chopper and we got away. We were the only two survivors." Shaun finished his story "At least, that's what I am told. The blow to my head put me in a coma for 5 weeks. When I woke they told me that Jones was a hero, that he'd been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour. I tried to tell them what had happened but they believed I was delusional, that what I was saying hadn't happened."

"This man" he pointed at Jones, who was trying to pull himself up the wall "is a fraud. He is heralded as a hero, a saviour of men, but he is a coward and a disgrace to his medal, his uniform and his rank."

Shaun watched as Hawkeye tried to move but Sekhmet growled and her teeth moved dangerously close to tearing his throat out.

"This is how things are going to work around here from now on." Shaun knelt next to Jones and spoke in his ear "You can keep your position on the Commission for all I care but you are to relinquish your Medal of Honour and your rank. Any business you have with us, any orders that you are going to issue to us, shall be done through another Commissioner and we shall have freer rein to do as we wish."

He knelt there, watching Jones, waiting for a response, and he could feel the tension in the room behind him, each of them waiting to see what would happen.

"Fine, fine. Whatever you want." Jones spat eventually "Just get me to a doctor."

"Of course." He motioned to everyone to stand down and clicked his fingers so Sekhmet climbed off of Hawkeye and moved to sit behind Wanda "Just one more thing" he reached into Jones' pocket and pulled out the control that was linked to Hawkeye's mind control chip "I'll be keeping a hold of this. Hawkeye, get him to the medical wing."

It had been a couple of hours since the confrontation in the briefing room and Shaun had spent the entire time on the phone to the Commission, explaining everything that had gone on and the changes that had been made to the management of the Dark Unit.

They were not very happy about it, in fact they were furious, but they agreed to his terms when Shaun pointed out that if he were to tell Loki that Jones' got his post based on what was essentially a false resume he would at the very least order Jones killed, and maybe a few of the other Commissioners too.

Once they had been satisfactorily motivated they proceeded to give out the mission that Jones had come to give them when their confrontation occurred.

"So they've given up on stealth and subtlety have they?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, they seem to think that it was taking too long to get an exact location. They want us to hit all possible targets at the same time."

"It's efficient. The longer we wait the more attacks they can direct." Ares spoke up.

"We know, Ares, but I', not comfortable with splitting the team up. We're stronger together."

"How many possibilities can there be?"

"They have narrowed down their location to one of five buildings using the intel you gathered whilst we were away."

"So 5 buildings split between 8 of us. That shouldn't be too difficult." Jordan said.

"Jordan, you're with Wanda. Brock, you get Hawkeye. Pietro and the Soldier. Ares, me and you will take the last two buildings between us."

"What's the layout?" the Soldier asked in Russian.

Shaun pointed at the table top and an image of the area that Jones had shown them appeared on it. They could each identify the 5 buildings, which all looked to be farmhouses on neighbouring farms, which meant that it was quite a large area.

"Jordan, Wanda, take the north building. Brock, you get building two." He tapped one of the buildings "Pietro, you and the Soldier take building three." He tapped another building "Ares building four is on you." He tapped the penultimate building "And I'll take the last building. The blueprints have been uploaded to your devices. Study them. Is everyone clear?" there was a varied chorus of affirmatives and Shaun smiled before pushing himself out of his seat.

He made his way towards his room to get ready with Sekhmet following behind him at a steady pace.

"Shaun." He recognised the voice straight away, he always would now that they were bonded. He stopped and turned to face her, smiling lightly.

"What's up?" he knew there was a problem, he could hear it in her voice and feel it in their bond.

"Why did you split us up? I don't know Jordan, we won't work as a team."

"I have no idea how good he is, but he is too valuable to lose. With you there I know that he's less likely to get hurt." He explained "After earlier we know that we can trust him, he fought for us, for me, without even thinking about what he was doing. We need all the trustworthy people we can get after what I just did to Jones."

"I get that. I really do, but I don't like the idea of you going in there all on your own. I know what your lucks like, you'll be the one to find the rebels." He could hear how much she was worried and did his best to comfort her.

"If I find them you'll be the first to know. And besides, I won't be going alone. Sekhmet will go with me." The lioness growled, almost in agreement, and Shaun sent her all of his positive feelings, his confidence and surety, the comfort he felt being with her.

She still didn't seem convinced so he did the only thing he could think of. He reached up and pulled the chain which Rose's engagement ring hung on over his head. He took one of hands, which were clenched into fists, and prised her fingers open. He pressed the chain into her hand and then closed her fingers around it gently.

"You hold on to that for me?" she nodded but he could tell that she didn't understand why he was giving it to her "That ring is a reminder that I'm not the person that I used to be. It reminds me of who I was and who I have become. It reminds me of everything that I used to love and everything that I have come to love. You wear that with pride and let it be a reminder to you too. Let it remind you that even when we aren't together physically that we are still bound together."

They stood in silence for a moment, Wanda's hand held gently between both of Shaun's. He was staring into her eyes, trying to tell her that everything was going to be alright without actually saying the words. After what felt like an eternity she nodded and held the chain up to him.

"Will you put it on me?" He smiled brightly and took the chain gently from her hand. He was almost a head taller than her so it was no challenge for him to lower the chain over her head.

He let go of the chain but he didn't step backwards. He was standing so close to her that he could smell her. She smelled of vanilla and ozone, from when she used her powers, and he found that he loved the smell. He was looking down at her and she was looking right back up at him and he couldn't help himself, he started to lean down towards her.

He expected her to back away but she just stayed where she was as he leaned closer and closer. Eventually their lips touched and it was everything that Shaun had imagined that it would be. Her lips were soft and supple and they tasted of cherry. The kiss was slow and passionate and he could feel all of the emotion that she felt for him, and he hoped that she could feel everything that he felt for her.

Eventually they pulled apart and he smiled as he looked down at her. She was slightly red in the face and was breathing quite heavily. Her lips were swollen and her hair was mussed up from where his hand was bunched in it. He imagined that he looked much the same way.

"We should probably…" she started but he cut her off by leaning down and pecking her on the lips.

"It can wait." He told her as he leaned in to kiss her again but she leaned away and glared at him.

"It can't wait. After what we did earlier we need to deal with this as quickly as possible before they decide that they actually do want to punish us." He knew that she was write but he couldn't really bring himself to care.

"Screw the Commission. They can wait." She pushed him away and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"We all put ourselves in the firing line earlier, not just you. We don't regret it but we need to fix it before it can't be fixed."

"Fine, fine, we'll go stop the damn rebels." He conceded "But when we're done we need to talk." He turned and walked away, clicking his fingers so Sekhmet would follow him.

He pushed open the door to his room and froze when he saw that there was already someone in there. His first instinct was to attack but he buried the instinct, temporarily, so that he could see what his visitor wanted.

"Barton, what are you doing here?" he asked calmly as he edged towards one of his hidden weapons that he kept scattered all over the room.

"I have information." The man replied. His voice was completely even and it always creeped Shaun out that all of his emotions had been buried by the mind control chip.

"Information about what?"

"The farm." Shaun sighed, he was going to have to drag it out of him.

"What information? And which farm?"

"My family live there." Barton's voice still remained perfectly even, as though he didn't care that he was selling out his family and the rebels, some of whom were probably his friends. Then again, he didn't feel anything about it, the chip prevented that.

"You think that's where the rebels will be?" Hawkeye nodded "Are you sure? Because if you're wrong we'll lose the whole cell."

"I'm certain."

"Then I want to know everything."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Shaun crouched in the treeline beyond the Barton Farm, watching the farmhouse with his eagle eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that he had seen a couple of armed men walking the perimeter and there was a guard hidden on the roof then he would have said that Hawkeye's intel was wrong and that this house wasn't the rebel base.

It looked so completely normal. There were kids running around outside the house and playing together, men and women were strolling around doing chores as though there wasn't a war waging around them. He had even seen a woman on the porch call everyone to dinner, except for the guards.

"How are we going to get in? The house is well defendable." Crossbones asked from Shaun's side.

"I've not gotten that far yet. Hawkeye says that he built a large panic room in the basement which runs on a separate generator."

"So if we cut the power…?"

"They run to the panic room and are safe." Shaun finished for him.

"We could wait until night. Infiltrate in the dark."

"They'll increase the patrols at night; it's what I'd do."

"But that just makes it more difficult. We could still sneak in."

"Or we could draw them out." Shaun said after a moment's pause.

"How? And how would that help?"

"If we can get them all outside we can draw them away from the panic room."

"But what about the civilians? Our orders are to kill everyone."

"If we use the right bait we can draw the civilians out too."

"What do you have in mind?" Crossbones turned to face him, his expression hidden behind his mask.

Shaun was mildly nervous that his plan wouldn't work, it was quite far out of the box, but it was worth a try.

The team was hidden in the treeline surrounding the property, simply waiting for the orders to strike, and Shaun was hiding near to the house, waiting for everyone to pile out so that he could sneak in.

His eyes were fixed on the treeline where Hawkeye was hiding, waiting for his cue, which Shaun was just waiting to give him. He had to get his timing right to draw them far enough from the house so that he could sneak in and cut off the electricity.

He watched the guards who were patrolling the perimeter until he figured that they were far enough past Hawkeye that he could reach the position that they'd agreed on to get their attention. He allowed his invisibility to drop for just long enough for Hawkeye to see and then cloaked himself again so that none of the rebels would see him.

He watched Hawkeye step out of the trees and stroll across the field like he owned the place, which, Shaun supposed, he did. He got spotted at the exact spot that they thought he would, just as the guard on the roof turned to face the direction that he was approaching from.

A siren sounded all across the property and Shaun immediately heard movement inside the house as the rebels rushed to grab their weapons and get to their battle posts. They poured outside and levelled their weapons at Hawkeye, who stopped and raised his hands.

"Laura!" he shouted "Laura! Get out here, Laura!" Shaun watched as two women came out of the house and stood on the porch. One of them Shaun recognised immediately, her face was etched into his memory. Loki had forced them to memorise the faces of every one of the Avengers, including the Black Widow.

Shaun didn't know the other woman, although she definitely knew Hawkeye. The two of them stepped down the stairs off of the porch. The crowd of rebels parted to allow them through, although they never took their weapons off of Hawkeye, they clearly knew that he was mind controlled.

Shaun stopped watching what was happening outside as he grabbed hold of the porch railing and pulled himself up, dropping silently onto the porch behind the rebels. He sneaked through the front door, which the boneheaded cretins had left open.

He made his way into the kitchen, where he found the door leading to the panic room and the basement. He pushed the door open and crept down the rickety stairs as quietly as possible but every step that he took the stairs creaked under him, until he eventually decided that it was too noisy so he vaulted over the railing and landed quietly on the basement floor.

The panic room was impossible to miss. One of the walls was shiny silver rather than concrete and he realised that the panic room was a lot larger than he had expected. But the doors weren't closed, the civilians were all hiding inside and there was a man standing in the doorway. Shaun recognised him too, his name was T'challa, also known as the Black Panther.

When Loki had taken over he had practically destroyed T'challa's country, Wakanda, in his search for Vibranium. In response T'challa had come to the United States and joined up with the rebels and the New-Avengers to hunt down Loki and the Dark Unit wherever they could.

T'challa was wearing his Vibranium battle armour, which meant that he was almost totally indestructible, which was one of the reasons that the Dark Unit hadn't managed to kill him yet. It was difficult to kill someone who wore indestructible armour. Luckily Shaun wasn't here to fight him, all he had to do was sneak past him into the panic room, which shouldn't be too difficult.

The bigger problem was if the Black Panther was down here and the Black Widow was up there that meant that there was a decent chance that the other New Avengers, and perhaps some of the other surviving Avengers, were here as well. And that made the battle upstairs slightly more complicated, although he was certain that the Dark Unit could take out the New Avengers it wouldn't be as easy as they expected.

The problem was with T'challa downstairs it might be difficult for Shaun to do what he had come down here for, which was to short circuit the system on the panic room and trap all of the rebels inside. But T'challa would undoubtedly try and stop him.

He sat down on the floor and placed his head in his hands, racking his brains trying to find any possible way to shut the power off to that room without alerting T'challa.

It took him a while to come up with the idea and he wouldn't have even thought of it if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

When the power to the main house was shut off the emergency generator would kick in and the doors to the panic room would close automatically. This would be the only time that Shaun would be able to short the power, as soon as the doors were closed fully the circuit would be closed off from the outside.

There were two reasons that he didn't like this plan. The first was that he would have to be inside the panic room when the doors started closing but he would have to get out before they closed and trapped him inside with everyone else.

The second reason was that he was thinking of overloading the generator with a burst of electricity generated by his own body but the problem was that he could only use that power once. After that he wouldn't be able to use the power from that spirit and he wouldn't be able to take another one of the spirit that had given him the power.

But it was the only choice that was available to him. He pushed himself to his feet and shuffled past Black Panther and into the panic room. He cast his eyes around, looking for the perfect spot to overload the system.

He found it by the door, a control panel with a camera to show what was outside of the room. He pried the panel off of the wall as quietly as he could and wrapped his hands around the wires. Now it was simply a matter of waiting for the power on the main generator to go out.

It didn't take very long. All of the lights went out at once and the building shook, clearly someone was using explosives up there. As soon as the lights went out a red light above the door started flashing and the doors started to slide shut quite quickly.

Shaun closed his eyes and the electricity stored in his body flowed through his hand and into the wires. The power surged all the way through the system and shut it down. The redundancy in the system forced the doors to close quicker using the last of the power in the system.

Shaun held on to the wires for as long as possible before he was forced to let go and make a mad dash for the door, allowing himself to become visible so that he could channel the spirit of the cheetah in order to make it to the door before it closed.

He dived through the gap just as the door crashed shut behind him. He tumbled out the other side and landed flat on his face.

It didn't take him long to push himself to his feet and adopt a fighting stance, waiting for the Black Panther to attack him but the Panther wasn't there. He must have gone upstairs when the battle started, not that Shaun was complaining, he needed to get out of the house and join the fight.

He dashed up the stairs, still channelling the cheetah spirit, and dashed towards the front door. He slid to a halt in the hallway when he saw two people running towards him. They stopped in the middle of the corridor when they saw him and none of them moved for a moment.

They were the two women from the porch that Shaun had seen before he entered the farmhouse. The Black Widow and the woman that Shaun could only assume was Laura Barton, Hawkeye's wife.

"What are you doing here?" the Widow asked as she pushed Barton through a doorway to her right.

"Eliminating a terrorist cell. You?" he asked casually as he reached over his shoulder and drew his sword.

"Protecting humanity. I assume the panic room is out of order?"

"Naturally. Shall we get this over with?" in response the Widow drew both of her pistols from her hip and opened fire.

Shaun dived to the side, crashing through a door and landing in a dining room. He rolled under the table as the Widow stepped into the doorway, reloading her pistols as she did. Shaun quietly crawled out from under the table and crouched behind it, waiting for the correct moment to strike.

The Widow stepped around the table and Shaun lunged forwards, slashing his sword. She jumped backwards and kicked out at him but he caught her leg and hurled her over the table and into the wall.

As she struggled to her feet he jumped up onto the table and adopted a fighting stance, twirling his sword casually. She turned to face him and he made a come here motion with his free hand. The Widow snarled and jumped onto the other end of the table, adopting her own fighting stance.

She pulled a knife out of her boot and lunged at him. He parried the blow and the two of them duelled on the table top. It was quite amazing how well they moved around each other, swapping positions on the table as though they weren't fighting to the death.

Shaun knew that he could easily finish her off if he channelled his bear or cheetah spirit but he was actually enjoying the fight, the two of them facing off against each other with no interruptions and nothing but their skill and their weapons. This was what fighting used to be like, a long time ago.

Shaun didn't know how long they were fighting for, he was so involved in the fight that he couldn't keep track. All he knew was that he could still hear the sounds of battle from outside and that neither of them seemed to have the upper hand, they were evenly matched, although he was certain that without the reflexes from his viper spirit, which he couldn't turn off, she would have beaten him many times over.

The room shook as an explosion sounded and a chunk of plaster fell from the roof, narrowly missing Shaun's head. He could hear Wanda shouting in his head, telling him to hurry up and finish her, to stop playing around. He wanted to argue, he really did, but he knew that she was right, he needed to finish this fight. His arm started to burn and he swung his sword with all of the strength of a bear.

He struck out at her chest and she raised her knife to parry but the force behind his attack was so great that her blade shattered into tiny pieces. The Widow dived off of the table to avoid a shard of metal flying straight for her eye. Shaun took a shard straight to the shoulder but he barely noticed, the adrenaline coursing through him saw to that.

He jumped off of the table after her, landing with a foot on her back, pressing her to the floor, his sword tip rested against the back of her neck.

He knew that he should kill her, that he should drive his sword through her throat and watch the breath leak out of her but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The way she lay there underneath him, panting, with her hair splayed out underneath her, it reminded him so badly of Rose, of how much he loved her and how she had died that he couldn't bring himself to kill her.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked him, her voice rugged from their fight. He just stared down at her, not really seeing her, but seeing his fiancée instead. He lifted his sword away from her throat and stepped backwards, giving her space to move.

"Grab Barton's wife and get out of here." He told her "Don't look back, don't let them see you. Take her somewhere safe and stay there until this is all over."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I've done enough bad for one day. Someone I loved would have wanted me to do some good too." He held a hand out to her and pulled her to her feet "Now go." She nodded once and sprinted out of the door.

Shaun took a moment to gather his breath before following after her, sprinting considerably quicker.

He burst through the doorway onto the porch and shoulder barged a rebel down the stairs. Shaun leaped after him and drove his sword into the man's stomach. He pulled it out and hurled it through the air at a rebel who was charging at Crossbones with two primed grenades in his hands.

Shaun activated the magnet in his gloves and the sword flew back to him just before the grenades exploded, leaving a scorch mark on the ground. Crossbones nodded his head in thanks but Shaun was already moving towards a group of rebels who were raining fire down on the Winter Soldier.

He decapitated one and drove his sword through another before they had even realised that he was there but by then it was too late. He swung the sword up and sliced one of their rifles in half before stabbing its owner in the throat. He leaned backwards as one of them lunged at him with a bayonet attached to his rifle. The blade soared over him and stuck in the chest of one of the other rebels. Shaun swung his sword sideways and severed the leg of the man with the bayonet. He righted himself and reversed his grip on his sword before thrusting it into the man's chest in a vicious backhander.

"Report?" Shaun asked as he looked around and saw that most of the rebels were dead and a few were captured.

"A couple got away into the trees." Brock told him "And we lost Hawkeye."

"What do you mean we lost him?"

"He turned on us. Apparently that mind control chip isn't as fool proof as they think."

"Great. The Black Widow got away from me too." He told them "Plant the explosives, let's get out of here."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

He couldn't breathe. His hands were grasping at his throat as he struggled to force the air into his lungs. He'd never felt terror like this before, he'd always been so sure that he could survive anything and now that he couldn't, now that he could feel his life slipping away from him, he was terrified.

He didn't know where he was, the room he was in was pitch black, but he could hear other people gasping for breath around him.

A shimmer of light appeared in front of him and he saw what looked like a door start to close, although he hadn't noticed that the door was even there before.

There was someone standing in the doorway, highlighted by the light shining behind them.

Just as the door was closing the light reflected onto the face of the person standing in the doorway.

Shaun's eyes snapped open and he shot up, his hand grasping around the knife that he hid under his pillow and yanking it out.

He looked around the room to establish that he was safe before dropping the knife onto the bed and laying back on the bed

This was the fourth night in a row that he'd had the same nightmare, the fourth night since the battle at the Barton farm, the fourth night since he had left all of those people to suffocate to death in the panic room.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep now, he hadn't the previous nights after he'd had this nightmare. His face was starting to betray that he wasn't sleeping and his teammates were starting to notice.

He rolled out of bed and tucked the knife back under his pillow. He pulled on a set off loose workout clothes and walked out of the room, trying to sneak past the others rooms so that he didn't wake any of his teammates, specifically Wanda. Right now he just wanted to be alone but he knew that she wouldn't let him.

He walked into the common area and smiled when he saw the three lions asleep on one of the chairs. Sekhmet stirred but he shushed her quickly before she could wake anyone up, including her two cubs.

He pushed the button for the elevator and stepped in as the doors opened with a ping, hoping that the noise wouldn't wake the others. He pushed the button for the gym a few floors below and waited patiently, listening to the terrible elevator music.

The door opened and he stepped out into the locker room. It wasn't a large locker room, it had been designed specifically for the Dark Unit, the other habitants of the tower had their own, much larger gym but this one was for the Unit's private use.

There was a row of lockers on the wall across from the elevator, a bench in front of them and a row of changing rooms which he knew had showers in the back of them. There was a doorway at either end of the room and he made his way to the one on the right, stepping into the gym.

The gym was full of the usual equipment, treadmills, weights, that sort of thing, but it had a couple of things not seen in most conventional gyms too, like a row of punch bags hanging from the ceiling and, most obviously, a boxing ring in the centre of the room.

At the far end of the room one of the walls was actually sound proofed glass with a door that led to a shooting range, not that Shaun used it. He had been a marksman in the SAS, if he wanted to practice his shooting the range wasn't long enough for him.

He pulled his top over his head and hung it on the ropes on the boxing ring. He stepped up to one of the punch bags and landed a hit on it as hard as he could. He waited for it to swing back into position before he punched it again and again, trying to forget the feeling of struggling for breath.

Every time he punched the bag he hoped to feel his problems rush out of him but it wasn't happening like that, in fact it was just making him feel worse.

He punched the bag and this time when he did the bear tattoo on his arm started to burn. He punched the bag with all of the considerable force of the bear and the bag was torn off of its hook and crashed into the wall.

"You look tense." Someone said from behind him. He groaned a little, he should have known that he wouldn't be able to get away without waking her up.

"I've been having this dream lately." He started.

"I know." He wasn't surprised, the two of them shared everything, whether they wanted to or not.

"Well in this dream I'm suffocating, I can feel my life leaving my body. And I can hear others doing the same. And then I see a door closing and there's a silhouette standing in it." He paused and took a deep breath, reaching up for the ring that normally hung around his neck only to remember that he hadn't gotten it back off of Wanda since the fight at the farm.

"Normally that's where it stops but tonight it went further." He continued "I saw who the silhouette was today. It was me. I was the one suffocating all of those people." Neither of them said anything for a while after they had finished, Wanda stood there watching as he moved down the line to the next punch bag and started to beat on that one.

"I've just…" he paused and caught the bag as it swung back to hit him "I've been starting to doubt myself lately."

"Doubt yourself or doubt Loki?" she asked casually.

"Maybe both." He replied after a moment "Since we went back to the village when we were away I've been having second thoughts." She didn't say anything so he continued "I was reminded that Rose had always wanted to help people, it was what she had lived for. It was what I was about too, it was why I joined the army. But that isn't what we do here." He took a deep breath and lashed out at the bag "All we seem to do is kill. There isn't any saving, there isn't any rescuing, just killing."

"And the killing's starting to weigh you down?"

"That's what it feels like. I've never shied away from killing before but I always had a reason, now I just do it because Loki wants me to."

They both fell into silence, Shaun had said everything that he wanted to say and Wanda was trying to think of something to say that would console him.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." He paused again as his mind ran over what to say next "Do you ever wonder if we chose the right side?"

"Why? Are you thinking about joining the rebellion?" she sounded a lot more hostile now, although she didn't sound entirely against the idea.

"No… yes… I don't know." He huffed and smacked the punching bag one time, letting it swing wildly as he stepped away and went to sit on a bench next to Wanda "Not really. But I was kind of thinking about leaving the Unit. I can't cope with all of the killing anymore. Not without a reason."

"Then what's holding you back?"

"You are." He smiled and placed his hand on her thigh "I don't want to leave you."

"That's sweet." She mumbled as she leaned her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist "Have you thought that this is all because you're grieving after visiting the place where Rose died?"

"The thought had crossed my mind." He muttered under his breath as he leaned his head sideways on the top of hers.

Shaun smiled as he watched Wanda step into her room and close the door behind her. He stared at the spot where she had disappeared for a few moments until he felt something rub against his leg.

He looked down and saw Nala rubbing her head against his leg, looking for attention. He smiled as he bent down and scooped her into his arms. He carried her into his bedroom and dropped her on the bed.

The bed was large, easily large enough to fit four people in, not that he ever had. At each side there was a bedside table. On one of them there was an alarm clock and on the other a phone for internal phone calls.

The rest of the room was sort of split into a couple of different sections. One corner was sort of like a study; there was a desk pushed into the corner with a laptop open on top of it and open books piled around it. There was a bookcase next to the desk which was absolutely packed with books, mainly on animals, although there were a couple of his favourite stories and one atlas too. There was a shelf on the wall above the desk and there was a bow sitting on it, nothing high fashioned, just one carved from a tree. On the wall between the shelf and the desk there was a notice board which had one thing pinned to it, a checklist of animals that he wanted to collect.

The other part of the room was a living area. There was a sofa pushed up against the wall with a coffee table in front of it. There was another chair at the head of the coffee table and at the other end there was a fireplace with a large flat screen TV hanging over it. On top of the mantel there was an Xbox with two controllers on top of it. In the corner there was another bookcase, this one piled high with DVDs and video games and next to the sofa there was a mini fridge which he had stocked full of alcohol.

There was a door at either side of the bed, one leading to the ensuite bathroom and the other leading to his walk-in wardrobe. He pulled his workout clothes off and threw them at the wash basket which was sat next to the door to the wardrobe.

People who saw his room often said that it felt crowded but Shaun felt like he had simply made the most out of the space available to him. He didn't like having too much empty space, it didn't feel right to him.

He flung himself on the bed next to Nala and the two of them played on his bed for a while until he eventually fell asleep with the lion cub snoozing on his chest.

He woke late in the afternoon to find that his room was more occupied than when he'd gone to sleep. Nala was no longer asleep on his chest, she was snoozing in front of the fire with Simba and Sekhmet and they weren't the only ones who had let themselves in whilst he was asleep.

Wanda was sitting on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table and an Xbox controller in her hands as she stared at the screen playing one of Shaun's favourite games: Mass Effect.

"How did you get in here?" he asked as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"You left the door open." She replied simply as she waved her hand and launched the second controlled at him with her powers. He caught it easily and dropped it onto the bed beside him.

"It's a one player game." He told her simply.

"Hurry up and get ready." She muttered as she blasted away at a giant robot "I want to show you something." He rolled out of the bed and landed lightly on his feet, trying not to wake up the lions who were still sleeping.

He had a quick shower in the bathroom and then pulled on a pair of jeans and a top and joined Wanda on the sofa.

"Shall we go?" she held up a finger, indicating that she wanted a minute and he leaned back to watch as she fought until she could save the game.

When she was done she pushed herself to her feet and pulled him with her.

Wanda walked out of the door and Shaun made to follow her but he stopped when he saw something pinned to the notice board that shouldn't be there: an envelope.

He walked over and plucked it off of. There were only a couple of words written on it but they grabbed his attention enough to make him want to open it: _Thanks for not killing m_ e.

He opened the envelope and turned it upside down, allowing the letter to fall into his hands.

 _Central Park. 11pm. Come alone._

 _BW_

He knew who the letter was from, how couldn't he? She hadn't exactly been subtle about it. But the letter raised a couple of questions that he really needed to answer. Like: how did she get the letter in there? And why did she want to meet him?

"Are you coming?" Wanda was standing in the doorway again "What is that?"

"Nothing." He replied quickly as he slid the letter into his pocket "Let's go."


End file.
